Industrial gas firm Air Products has finalised an agreement with Norwegian fertilizer giant Yara on renewable ammonia sales from the Neom plant in Saudi Arabia.
Yara will market renewable ammonia that Air Products does not sell as hydrogen, the US firm said in its second-quarter results today. The firms said in December 2025 that they were in discussions on a "marketing and distribution agreement" for Neom.
Air Products is the sole offtaker for the 1.2mn t/yr Neom plant under a 30-year contract. It plans to crack ammonia back into hydrogen for sale in Europe, including under a deal with TotalEnergies.
The agreement allows some of the Neom supply to be sold directly as ammonia instead of being cracked into hydrogen. The volumes will be "sold and delivered to Yara's existing global supply chain", Air Products chief executive Eduardo Menezes said. Yara will be "compensated on a commission basis" for the sales, Air Products said.
The US firm said the agreement reduces its "need for green hydrogen downstream investment", potentially lowering its requirement for ammonia cracking capacity. Air Products previously announced plans for ammonia cracking plants at several locations in northwest Europe, but it has yet to take a final investment decision on any facility.
The arrangement could help Air Products market early Neom volumes before any ammonia cracking facility starts operating.
Neom could produce first ammonia in 2027, the project developers said in March. But Air Products expects "a long commissioning process" and that "it will take some time for the facility to get to full production", Menezes said today.
Air Products expects "no gain or loss" related to the Neom project in 2027, Menezes said.
The company recently called off plans to continue development of the Louisiana Clean Energy Complex (LCEC), which was slated to produce around 600,000 t/yr of hydrogen from natural gas with carbon capture and storage.
Air Products is now looking to deploy assets purchased for the facility in other projects or sell them to other companies, Menezes said. Equipment such as air separation units could be used at other Air Products plants, while the company intends to commercialise the ammonia loop as a complete unit, he said.
