Gresik, E Java (ANTARA News) - The sate-run fertilizer maker PT Petrokimia Gresik has entered the final stage of completion of the construction of its ammonia and urea fertilizer plant.

The plant is expected to start production in Dec 2017, a spokesman of the company Widodo Heru said.

"Currently, we have entered the finishing stage, and under the contract, the Amorea II plant project could start production in 2017," Widodo said here on Thursday.

He added that the project was on schedule, and any delay in its development would become the responsibility of the contractor.

The construction of Amorea II plant was assigned to a consortium of Wuhuan Engineering and PT Adhi Karya (Persero) Tbk, worth Rp8.1 trillion.

Under the contract, the construction project would run from 2014 to 2017, and its initial production to meet national fertilizer demand is expected to begin in Dec 2017.

The companys Director of Development and Engineering Arif Fauzan has earlier expressed optimism that the project could be completed as scheduled, including gas supply to support its production.

"Currently, gas supply for Amoniak Urea II project is ready, in accordance with our cooperation to obtain gas supply from Husky-CNOOC Madura Limited (HCML)," he stated.

Petrokimias existing ammonia plant has a production capacity of 445thousand tons per year, while demand of the commodity has amounted to 850 thousand tons per year.

In addition, urea fertilizer demand in East Java has reached some 1 million tons a year. With the current production capacity at 460 thousand tons a year, it would need to import the fertilizer.

Therefore, the Amorea II plant would become a strategic project to negate the need to import raw material for fertilizer, he remarked.

It would also cut logistic cost for ammonia and urea fertilizer import, which has reached Rp330 billion per year.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017