Australian Company Proposes $3 Billion Coal-to-Fertiliser Plant in New Zealand

An Australian company is proposing a $3 billion coal-to-fertiliser plant in New Zealand’s Southland region, aiming to make the country self-sufficient in urea while supplying Australia’s eastern states.

Victorian Hydrogen plans to build the facility about 30 kilometres northeast of Invercargill.

Founder and executive director Allan Blood told The Epoch Times that the plant would produce up to 1.5 million tonnes of urea a year, covering New Zealand’s current imports of about 500,000 tonnes, with the remainder exported to Australia.

Blood said the company has secured agreements with infrastructure providers and local Māori tribe Ngāi Tahu.

However, it has yet to commence the process to gain environmental approvals. He said he expected approvals to be obtained in time to start production in three years.

The company plans to convert Southland lignite, or brown coal, into gas for urea production.

Blood said the process would reduce emissions by limiting the amount of nitrous oxide (NO), a greenhouse gas produced in urea manufacture.

“We have a lot of experience,” he said, pointing to the company’s $40 million ($28.6 million) project in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, which has secured a 25-year take-or-pay contract worth over $5 billion.

That facility is set to produce 81,000 tonnes of hydrogen, 300,000 tonnes of ammonia and 520,000 tonnes of urea, and comes as Australia remains reliant on a single domestic urea producer in the Pilbara.

The Pilbara plant was recently shut down after a power surge damaged equipment, prompting the federal government to turn to Indonesia for emergency supplies.

New Zealand also produces urea domestically at a plant in New Plymouth, though Blood said the more than 40-year-old facility does not use the same processes proposed for the Southland project.

Victorian Hydrogen is expected to seek approval under New Zealand’s “fast track” consenting legislation, which shortens approval timeframes but has drawn criticism for limiting public consultation and environmental oversight.