Egypt's Abu Qir to gradually restart urea output

Egyptian nitrogen producer Abu Qir is set to gradually resume urea production following the restoration of natural gas supply, having stopped output towards the end of last month alongside Egypt's other producers.

Abu Qir has issued a stock exchange filing today, announcing the gradual restart of its plants. The firm's granular and prilled urea plants, which have a capacity of 650,000 t/yr and 580,000 t/yr, respectively, stopped on 24 June.

Fellow Egyptian suppliers Kima, NCIC, Helwan and Mopco told Argus that there has been no change to the status of their urea production, with all output idled through last week.

A gas supply crunch in Egypt in recent weeks has shuttered urea production, with production impacted since 20 May, as the country prioritised gas flows to power plants to meet cooling demand in the summer months. Egypt's prime minister said on 25 June that the country will spend $1.18bn on LNG and fuel oil imports this summer in a bid to stop daily power outages.

By Harry Minihan