ADNOC and Fertiglobe to sell blue ammonia to Idemitsu

DUBAI: The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Fertiglobe will sell blue ammonia to Japanese petroleum company Idemitsu for its use in refining and petrochemicals operations, ADNOC said on Tuesday.
Last Tuesday, ADNOC announced that it has sold its first cargo of blue ammonia to Japan’s leading general trading company Itochu for use in fertilizer production.
A statement by ADNOC said that the Idemitsu sale builds upon recently announced joint efforts to enhance industrial cooperation between the UAE and Japan and support the development of a new UAE-Japan blue ammonia supply.
Fertiglobe, a 58:42 partnership between OCI and ADNOC, will produce blue ammonia at its Fertil plant in the Ruwais Industrial Complex in Abu Dhabi for delivery to ADNOC’s customers in Japan.
It said the shipments, which were sold at an attractive premium to grey ammonia, underscore the favorable economics for blue ammonia as an emerging source of low-carbon energy.
It was announced in June that Fertiglobe will join ADNOC and ADQ as a partner in a new world-scale 1 million metric tons per annum blue ammonia project at TA’ZIZ in Ruwais, subject to regulatory approvals.
Fertiglobe is the world’s largest seaborne exporter of nitrogen fertilizers, and its Fertil plant is one of the largest regional fertilizer producers with a production capacity of 1.2 million metric tons of ammonia and 2.1 million metric tons of urea. While the ammonia Fertil produces is typically considered as “grey” ammonia, the plant will be fitted with CO2 liquefaction units, and CO2 will be transferred to – and reinjected into – underground reservoirs by the ADNOC Al Reyadah carbon capture and storage plant to facilitate the production of blue ammonia.
Ammonia can be used as a low-carbon fuel across a wide range of industrial applications, including transportation, power generation, refining and industries, including steel, wastewater treatment, cement and fertilizer production. For Japan, in particular, hydrogen and its carrier fuels, such as blue ammonia, are expected to play an important role in the country’s ongoing industrial decarbonization efforts.
ADNOC is a regional leader in carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) and is leveraging its experience to build its blue ammonia business. CO2 from the ammonia production process will be captured and transferred to Al Reyadah, the first commercial-scale carbon capture plant in the Middle East and the world’s first commercial facility to capture CO2 from the iron and steel industry. The CO2 is subsequently used in ADNOC Onshore’s Rumaitha and Bab fields where it is safely stored underground. Each year, Al Reyadah captures up to 800,000 tons of CO2 from local UAE steel production.
ADNOC announced in May that it will advance a world-scale blue ammonia production facility at the TA’ZIZ industrial ecosystem in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi. The design contract for this project has already been awarded, with a final investment decision for the project expected in 2022, and start-up targeted for 2025. The facility’s capacity will be one million tons per annum.
For Japan, in particular, hydrogen and its carrier fuels, such as blue ammonia, are expected to play an important role in the country’s ongoing industrial decarbonization efforts. Idemitsu will use the cargo to pilot the use of blue ammonia to decarbonize its refinery operations.