Green-washed urea facility strikes deal with climate opponents Koch Industries

A proposed Australian fertiliser factory, that has faced accusations of green-washing its plans to produce urea using fossil gas, has struck a supply deal with the controversial, climate denial funder, Koch Industries.

This week, Strike Energy announced that it had signed an offtake agreement with Koch Fertilizer, a subsidary of the US-based Koch Industries, for the supply of up to 1.4 million tonnes of urea from its planned Project Haber fertiliser facility.

The link with Koch Industries is perhaps an appropriate choice for a company whose management had a major role in convincing the Morrison government to adopt a ‘gas led recovery’ as part of its economic response ot the Covid pandemic.

Koch Industries ranks as one of the world’s largest dealers in fertilisers, making its founders some of the world’s richest people – who have in turn used their riches to stridently oppose to any attempts to tackle climate change.

The industrial conglomerate has substantial investments in oil and gas, and its founders – Charles and and the late David Koch – have poured hundreds of millions in funds to groups pushing climate change denial and opposition to stronger climate policies.

The deal effectively links Koch Industries with a company backed by the architect of the Morrison government’s ‘gas led recovery’.

Strike Energy’s directors include Nev Power, who was picked by the Morrison government to chair its National Covid Commission, which recommended that the appropriate government response to the Covid-19 pandemic was to fund new fossil gas projects.

Strike’s CEO Stuart Nicholls said the $3 billion urea project “personifies the intensions of the ‘gas led recovery’.”

In February, federal energy and emissions reduction minister Angus Taylor revealed that Strike Energy’s urea project project would benefit from a fast-tracked approval process.

At the time, Taylor said the project would “deliver significant emissions reduction to Australia’s urea manufacturing sector through the use of advanced ammonia and gas processing technology, as well as dedicated clean hydrogen.”

But as detailed by RenewEconomy, Strike Energy’s proposed urea production facility will predominently use supplies of fossil gas as a feedstock – despite promoting itself as a ‘low emissions’ facility.

Company documents show the project will use feedstocks made up of just 1.25 per cent green hydrogen, with the remaining 98.75 per cent being made up of fossil gas.

The emissions saving would amount to 0.01 tonnes of carbon dioxide per ton of urea produced, the documents suggest.

The offtake agreement effectively links a company that faces genuine claims about ‘green-washing’ its urea production facility and the US-based conglomerate responsible for a large proportion of the world’s climate disinformation campaign.

In April, Strike said that Power would retain his position on the company’s board, after Power had taken a leave of absence to deal with the legal impllications of his breach of Covid-19 border restrictions – which resulted in a suspended prison sentence.