Pankaj Oswal Burrup Fertilisers

Of the many global parties who signed gas contracts to build petrochemical plants on the Burrup Peninsular, Burrup Fertilisers has been the only one to achieve success. Newly arrived to Australia and only 29 years old, but with a strong family background in the business, Pankaj Oswal raised US$1 billion and persuaded local governments to support his dream of building a world class ammonia plant in the north west of Western Australia. Having initiated discussions in 2000 with the West Australian government, in April 2006, the new plant was successfully commissioned. Within one month, it reached design capacity of 2,200 tonnes per day. In November 2007, the 1 millionth tonne of ammonia was shipped. In June 2008, the first major shut down of the plant was completed on time and within budget, increasing production to 2,400 tonnes per day. Today, Burrup Fertilisers is the operator of one of the world’s largest, single train merchant ammonia plants, with 125 employees in Australia and 300 worldwide via the Oswal Group Global Network. Burrup Fertilisers is considered a fierce competitor in the global ammonia market, with the lowest production costs of the product in South East Asia, while producing in excess of 4% of the world’s tradeable ammonia. The company has singularly shifted Australia’s position in the ammonia trade from an importer to an exporter. The plant’s success has allowed diversification into further supporting and expanding businesses, with Pankaj establishing the Oswal Group Global, including businesses in a vast range of sectors from power to lifestyle restaurants. Pankaj is also currently planning on constructing a technical ammonium nitrate plant, thereby introducing further downstream processing facilities. He aims to repay debt from cashflows and then draw on his team’s expertise to develop further petrochemical projects in the region.