In mid-April a leading Indian firm, Tata Chemicals, acquired a 25.1% stake in a project to build an ammonia-urea factory near Libreville. The majority stakeholder, with 62.9%, is Olam International of Singapore; the government of Gabon holds the remaining 12% interest. In its first phase of development the factory, which is expected to cost some US$1.3bn to build, will have capacity to produce 2,200 tonnes of ammonia per day and 3,850 tonnes of urea per day by 2014. This total may double in the second phase of development, although that will be contingent on future market conditions and the success of the first stage of development. A decision on whether to press ahead with the second phase will be reached by 2013. One-quarter of the plant's output will be sold by Tata in India, where demand for fertiliser is growing rapidly.

The ammonia-urea plant is just one of a series of large investment projects led by Olam. The company is developing both a special economic zone to process logs in Nkok-25 km from Libreville-and a vast plantation in the country's south-east to produce palm oil, a commodity widely used in foodstuffs, cosmetics and biofuels. The timber-processing zone at Nkok, which is relatively well-connected by rail and road to the rest of the country, as well as to planned airports, would be expected to create some 6,000 jobs in its first few years of operation. The zone is expected to become the largest of its kind in central Africa. It will also dovetail with the government's 2010 ban on the export of unprocessed logs so as to boost the value added to the country's exports. Olam is also considering building a refinery and a new port to export palm oil. This deal comes amid record high global prices for palm oil, driven largely by increasing demand for biofuels. This project and the ammonia-urea factory will go some way towards tapping Gabon's large agricultural potential and reducing its economic dependence on hydrocarbons.