Direktur Utama Petrokimia Gresik Daconi Khotob usai penandatanganan kontrak Engineering, Procurement, Construction, and Commissioning (EPCC) antara PT Petrokimia Gresik dan PT Rekayasa Industri (Rekind) di Jakarta (Dok. Komkor Petrokimia Gresik)
Gresik, desabersuara.id – Efforts to strengthen food security and guarantee fertilizer supply for farmers in villages across the country have received a boost. PT Petrokimia Gresik has officially partnered with PT Rekayasa Industri (Rekind) to build a large-capacity soda ash and ammonium chloride plant in the Gresik industrial area, East Java.
Although its main focus is producing soda ash for the glass and detergent industries, the project brings direct benefits to agriculture. The advanced plant is targeted to produce 300,000 tons of ammonium chloride a year. For agriculture, ammonium chloride is an important single-nutrient nitrogen source and a key raw material for compound NPK fertilizer, which local farmers have long relied on.
PT Pupuk Indonesia President Director Rahmad Pribadi said the plant is in line with the government’s direction to strengthen national food security through downstreaming. The project is considered strategic to expand and diversify nitrogen sources and ensure smooth domestic NPK fertilizer production.
The move is expected to reduce Indonesia’s dependence on imported fertilizer raw materials. With ammonium chloride produced domestically, the fertilizer supply chain to rural areas is expected to become more efficient and stable, helping farmers keep raising their yields.
Beyond that, the new plant is designed as a green industrial facility. Petrokimia Gresik President Director Daconi Khotob explained that it will apply carbon capture technology able to absorb up to 174,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year from existing fertilizer production processes. The captured gas will then be turned into value-added products.
According to Daconi, the initiative matters not only for business but also as a form of environmental responsibility, given its significant carbon absorption.
The signing of the Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) contract marks a concrete step by state-owned enterprises toward self-reliance in the chemical and agricultural industries. For rural communities, the low-carbon facility is expected to provide certainty in fertilizer raw material supply to support food sovereignty, while protecting ecosystems from industrial emissions.
