UREA from Leigh Creek could be on the market within the next two years after the state government issued the relevant licenses to the Leigh Creek Energy Project.
Last month, Leigh Creek Energy announced its plans to make fertiliser after commercialising hydrogen production using gas drawn from under a disused coal field about 250 kilometres north of Port Augusta.
Today, it announced to the Australian Stock Exchange that the Petroleum Production Licence and Associated Activities Licence had been issued.
The PPL is the final petroleum licencing approval for upstream development of the Leigh Creek Energy Project along its path to commercial urea production .
The AAL allows access to roads and infrastructure as required for conduct of operations on the PPL .
The release says LCEP was likely to begin commercial syngas production within 24 months.
At this stage, LCEP is set to become the only Australian fully-integrated fertiliser project with all exploration, syngas production and processing and manufacturing of nitrogen-based fertiliser conducted on-site.
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Leigh Creek Energy managing director Phil Staveley said domestic urea production from the LCEP would strengthen supply chain resilience for Australian farmers.
"The granting of the PPL is the final step in the petroleum licencing approval process for upstream development for the LCEP, which will be a key supplier of urea to Australia's agriculture sector," he said.
"The project will be the only fully-integrated urea production facility in Australia, with an on-site power plant with up to 100MW capacity and nameplate 1 million tonne per annum urea plant, with potential to increase to 2 million tonnes per annum.
"The granting of the PPL by the South Australian government allows us to proceed with certainty towards monetising the large gas reserves of the LCEP and providing long-term economic development opportunities to communities of the Upper Spencer Gulf, northern Flinders Ranges, SA and Australia.
"We recently completed the in-situ gasification and urea production Pre-Feasibility Study and are well advanced with the upstream operation Environmental Impact Report process for the ISG project which we expect to be carbon neutral by 2030 due to its strong environmental, social and governance profile including access to clean energy and infrastructure.
"These milestones all move LCK closer to becoming a significant supplier of low-cost, domestically-produced urea providing additional security to a critical product for the Australian agricultural sector."
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