Cognizance of the Commercial Viability of Manufacturing Urea Utilizing Offshore Natural Gas Deposits in Mannar Basin, Sri Lanka

Significant Natural Gas (NG) discoveries in the Mannar Basin off the Northwest coast of Sri Lanka were made back in 2011 in block M2. Four wells were drilled in the same block discovering NG and condensate in two wells named CLPL-Dorado-91H/1z and CLPLBarracuda- 1G/1. Amongst the two discoveries, Dorado reservoir contains clean and high quality sandstone with high porosity and moderate permeability and is straight forward in reaching out for development. The subsequent focus was on the ways of utilizing the discoveries made to enhance economic growth of the country. Viability of establishing urea manufacturing industry remains arguable due to lack of researches. The current demand is completely met by importations. Hydrogen is one of the main raw materials involved in urea synthesis which is ultimately manufactured using NG. Hence a constant supply of NG is essential in urea production which will be a solution for the urea importation. Cognizance of the feasibility was initiated by determining the reservoir potential. Urea importation data were acquired while further analyzing the production profile of Dorado. A Fiscal model for the urea plant was prepared with the involvement of a leading foreign organization in the urea production industry. Thus most economical quantity and price was identified and applied to the Fiscal Regime for Dorado and two case scenarios were proposed accordingly. Dorado reservoir has to be developed with a daily gas rate of 20MMScf/d to meet local urea demand but most economical field development gas rate for Dorado is close to 70MMScf/d. A case scenario of selling the excess NG production to the government to utilize as an energy source or a feedstock in all other possible sectors was proposed. Further analysis can be made depending on different NG transportation methods and plant locations to achieve higher yield