The BFPL plant uses natural gas as a feedstock for the manufacture of liquid ammonia, used primarily in the manufacture of fertiliser. Gas is purchased via a 25-year take-or-pay contract with Apache Energy Limited, Kufpec Australia Pty Ltd and Tap Oil Limited, worth morethan A$1 billion.
Liquid ammonia from the plant, at a temperature of -33o Celsius, is piped to a new jetty, built as part of the Port of Dampier upgrade, for shipment to international markets. The first shipment was made in June, 2006.
One of the world's largest fertiliser manufacturers and shippers of liquid ammonia, Yara International ASA, has signed an agreement to take BFPL's total production of ammonia for 20 years.
Because liquid ammonia is expensive to transport, distribution is organised on a regional basis. Output from the BFPL plant will be exported primarily to India, Indonesia and Japan. Yara has added two 60,000 tonne tankers to its fleet to handle distribution of the plant's output.
The plant reached full production capacity within just a few months of commissioning and, by the end of the first year of production, had exceeded its original targets, manufacturing and exporting 776,000 tonnes of liquid ammonia, in the process earning the company recognition as one of the world's major manufacturers of liquid ammonia, a vital raw material in the manufacture of fertiliser.
The plant reached full production capacity within just a few months of commissioning and, by the end of the first year of production, had exceeded its original targets, manufacturing and exporting 776,000 tonnes of liquid ammonia.
The first year of production was achieved without a single lost time injury, and only one minor plant malfunction, a controlled release of gas which occurred as part of a standard safety procedure early in the plant's operation.
Within the global ammonia industry, the Burrup plant is regarded as an exemplar of safe and efficient operation.