Abstract A laboratory study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of phenylphosphorodiamidate (PPD) and N‐(n‐butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBT) in retarding urea hydrolysis in four flooded rice soils under simulated oxidized and reduced conditions. Urea (400 μg N g‐1soil) with PPD or NBT (2.0% w/w) was added to preincubated soils and analyzed for urea content 1, 3, 5, 7 and 15 days after N application. N‐(n‐butyl) thiophosphoric triamide was more effective in delaying urea hydrolysis under oxidizing conditions and at 5 days 57% of the added urea remained in the oxidized soils compared to only 4% under reduced soil conditions. In three soils, PPD was observed to be effective under reducing soil constraints. At 5 days 56 and 31% of the added urea was unhydrolyzed under reducing and oxidizing soil conditions, respectively, with the addition of PPD. For two soils 48% of the added urea remained at the 15 day sampling for the urea + NBT treatment