The emirate of Sharjah has signed a deal with Oman Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals company to set up 200 million dirhams ($54.45 million) chemical plant to produce ammonia, urea and other products.

The plant, to be set up at Sharjah's Hamriyah Free Zone, will initially produce 400,000 tonnes of ammonia annually, and later produce urea and other products.
Sharjah-based Crescent National Gas Company Ltd will supply the new plant with 45 million cubic feet of natural gas a day for 25 years.
Hamriyah Free Zone, which is hoping to attract international companies and investment, has about 850 companies working from 78 different countries.
Hamriyah director-general Rashid Al Leem said the project would be one of the largest in the free zone.First phase production of 400,000 tonnes of ammonia a year will commence by April 2007 with phase two production of urea and other products at the plant will start in 2008.
High prices and a shortage of ammonia in the world market spurred the company on to setting up its own ammonia plant.
The plant will not only meet its own needs of ammonia, which it currently imports, but also export the surplus, company officials said.
The plant’s annual turnover is expected to top $80 million.
A second plant is planned in Oman in the next couple of years. Ammonia as a raw material is used for a number of end products.
Up to 75 per cent of the plant's ammonia production is targeted for export, with the rest being used by its pharmaceutical plants.
The company decided to set up its first ammonia plant in Sharjah due to the availability of cheaper gas supplies at the rate of $1.5 mmBtu (million metric British thermal unit) compared with $6 mmBtu in Europe.
The plant's natural gas requirement is about 45 million standard cubic feet per day. The project requires 60,000 square metres of land for its phase one operating facilities that include product storage.
Production of urea will be followed by production of nitric acid, ammonium nitrate and ammonium phosphate.
Technology from MW Kellogg has been procured for the plant. The Omani company manufactures and markets bulk semi-synthetic penicillin with sales in Middle East, Europe, East Asia and India. The 14-year-old company has an annual turnover of $45 million.