Ammonia
Overview
The ammonia market is undergoing a period of rapid and dramatic change. Conventional or ‘grey’ ammonia is traditionally produced almost exclusively for its nitrogen content. However, the urgent need to decarbonise the global economy and meet ambitious zero-carbon goals has opened up exciting new opportunities.
Ammonia has the potential to be the most cost-effective and practical ‘zero-carbon’ energy carrier in the form of hydrogen to the energy and fuels sectors. This has led to rapid growth of interest in clean ammonia and a flurry of new ‘green’ and ‘blue’ ammonia projects.
Argus has many decades of experience covering the ammonia market. We incorporate our multi-commodity market expertise in energy, marine fuels, the transition to net zero and hydrogen to provide existing market participants and new entrants with the full market narrative.
Our industry-leading price assessments, powerful data, vital analysis and robust outlooks will support you through:
- Ammonia price assessments (daily and weekly), some of which are basis for Argus ammonia futures contracts, Ammonia forward curve data and clean ammonia cost assessments and modelled weekly prices
- Short and medium to long-term forecasting, modelling and analysis of conventional and clean ammonia prices, supply, demand, trade and projects
- Bespoke consulting project support
Latest ammonia news
Browse the latest market moving news on the global ammonia industry.
IMO 2040 CO2 goals unmet under base case: ABS
IMO 2040 CO2 goals unmet under base case: ABS
New York, 27 August (Argus) — The shipping industry will not meet the International Maritime Organization (IMO) goal for reducing CO2 emissions by 2040 without hastening the expected pace of vessel replacements, a study by vessel classification organization American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) concluded. IMO calls for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20pc by 2030, by at least 70pc by 2040, and to net zero by 2050, compared with 2008 base levels. Under a base case scenario, a 20pc reduction in CO2-equivalent emissions by 2030 is achievable on a full lifecycle basis, but a 70pc percent reduction by 2040 is not, ABS said. Under the best case scenario examined by ABS, achieving IMO's 70pc target would require a significantly faster renewal of the vessel fleet to replace oil-fueled vessels or a higher degree of vessel retrofitting. The three biggest categories of bunker consuming vessels — tankers, dry bulk carriers and container ships — are expected to follow a similar trajectory for marine fuel demand under the base case scenario, with conventional marine fuel accounting for more than 60pc of demand through 2035, ABS said. Conventional fuel demand would decline to 38-44pc of marine fuel demand in the first half of the 2040s in the base case, ABS predicted. Methanol in that period would grow to about 35pc of marine fuel demand for tankers and container ships and about 22pc for dry bulk carriers. Ammonia and hydrogen demand would grow to about 13pc of tankers' marine fuel demand, 18pc of dry bulk carriers' demand and about 14pc of container ships' demand. LNG across the three vessel categories is expected at 4-6pc of bunkering demand in the early 2040s, with biodiesel at 5-9pc of demand. By Stefka Wechsler Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Pupuk Indonesia outlines CCS blue ammonia plans
Pupuk Indonesia outlines CCS blue ammonia plans
Singapore, 2 August (Argus) — State-owned fertilizer producer Pupuk Indonesia plans to achieve low-carbon ammonia production using carbon capture and storage (CCS) by 2030-45, it said at the International and Indonesia CCS Forum in Jakarta on 1 August. Pupuk Indonesia plans to develop seven blue ammonia projects across its various facilities in Aceh, east Kalimantan, south Sumatra and east Java. The company is currently the largest grey ammonia producer in Asia, produced from natural gas without any CCS, with a total production capacity of 7mn t/yr. It will convert its existing grey plants to blue ammonia facilities with the implementation of CCS, targeting a total of 4.3mn t/yr of blue ammonia production by 2045. CCS is a technology capable of capturing carbon emissions from the air and storing them in a storage facility with carbon emissions directed and injected into old oil and gas wells. Pupuk Indonesia plans to use CCS at five potential sites comprising the Arun field, east Kalimantan, Sunda Asri basin, Gundih and Sukowati. The Pupuk group is expecting potential CCS use to gradually increase to 4.3mn t of carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2045, as part of its efforts to decarbonise ammonia and fertilizer products, while expanding into new markets for blue ammonia. Pupuk Indonesia's subsidiary Pupuk Iskandar Muda (PIM) is expected to carry out the first low-carbon ammonia project for the group, by building a new blue ammonia plant with a total production capacity of 825,000 t/yr by 2030. Feasibility studies are currently under way at the Arun field as a potential site for CCS with gas supplies from Andaman Sea blocks. The next implementation would be adding around 396,000 t/yr of blue ammonia capacity to its PIM-2 unit by 2035, bringing PIM's blue ammonia total production to 1.2mn t/yr. Pupuk Indonesia is also planning to add 594,000 t/yr of blue ammonia conversion to another subsidiary Pupuk Kalimantan Timur's Kaltim-2 unit by 2040. The producer has entered into an initial deal with Chevron New Energies International to assess CCS. Pupuk Sriwidjaya's Pusri-2B unit will also be replaced and added with a new blue ammonia plant, achieving 1.32mn t/yr of blue ammonia capacity by 2040-45. This will be followed by further blue ammonia additions to Pupuk's Petrokimia Gresik plant and the remaining units at the east Kalimantan plant. Pupuk's Gresik plant is expected to have around 495,000 t/yr of blue ammonia capacity at the PG-III unit, with Kaltim to have a 660,000 t/yr new blue ammonia plant. Pupuk Indonesia plans to work on the development of green ammonia using renewable feedstock beyond 2025 and to achieve ammonia co-firing in coal-fired power plants , with the help of government support, fiscal incentives, partnerships and acceleration of commercialisation operations at CCS sites. Indonesia has a huge potential to become a CCS hub by tapping its storage capacity in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, with total CCS capacity potentially reaching 4.85bn t of CO2, Pupuk Indonesia said. By Dinise Chng Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Omani renewable H2 project to start four years late
Omani renewable H2 project to start four years late
Hamburg, 1 August (Argus) — The targeted start date for the planned Hyport Duqm renewable hydrogen and ammonia project in Oman has been pushed back by at least four years and an offtake agreement with German utility Uniper is no longer in place. The project, in which BP has agreed to acquire a 49pc stake , is now scheduled to start commercial operations in 2030-31, Belgian developer Deme said on 31 July. It was initially due to start operations in 2026, based on statements from Uniper in 2021 when the utility announced it had signed a cooperation agreement with the project developers. Under the preliminary deal, Uniper would have taken the full 330,000 t/yr of renewable ammonia output planned for the facility's first phase. But this agreement could not be upheld after Uniper was nationalised in 2022, Deme told Argus today. The German government nationalised Uniper to stabilise the firm after it made major losses replacing missing Russian gas deliveries. Deme did not comment on the reasons for the delay to the plant's start-up, but timelines have slipped for many other renewable hydrogen and ammonia projects because of difficulties securing firm offtakers and financing, persistent regulatory uncertainties and increased cost estimates. Deme and Omani company OQ will each hold a 25.5pc stake in the Hyport Duqm project following BP's entry, which is expected to be finalised this quarter, the Belgian firm said. BP will become the project's operator. The project is at the pre-front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) stage and is slated to entail around 500MW of electrolysis capacity, powered by 1.3GW of wind and solar capacity in its first phase, Deme said. The combined wind and solar power could be lifted to 2.7GW in a second phase, the firm said, without disclosing the electrolysis capacity for the expansion. Output from the plant in the Duqm special economic zone is to be exported to Europe and northeast Asia from a nearby port, Deme said. Deme is also considering projects in other countries including Egypt where it plans to set up a 320,000 t/yr renewable ammonia plant . Tunisia's government said earlier this week that it struck a preliminary deal with Deme on the development of a renewable hydrogen project , but the company said today that it is too early to disclose further details. By Stefan Krumpelmann Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Singapore shortlists consortia for NH3 power, bunkering
Singapore shortlists consortia for NH3 power, bunkering
Singapore, 25 July (Argus) — The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and the Energy Market Authority (EMA) selected two consortia, with one of them likely to lead the project to develop ammonia as a low or zero-carbon solution for power generation and bunkering in the island nation. MPA and EMA selected the two consortia from a total of six firms that were shortlisted in 2023 , after a request for proposal (RFP) was launched. The final selection from the chosen two will be made in the first quarter of 2025. This project, which is part of Singapore's national hydrogen strategy , is looking at developing end-to-end ammonia solution that can generate 55-65MW of electricity via direct combustion in combined cycle gas turbines. Low- to zero-carbon ammonia would be imported and used for this purpose. The project is aiming for 100,000 t/yr of ammonia bunkering, starting with shore-to-ship bunkering followed by ship-to-ship bunkering. The two consortium leads are Singaporean conglomerate Keppel's arm Keppel Infrastructure, as well as Singaporean-based Sembcorp-SLNG. The consortia also include the following bunkering participants - Japan's shipping firm NYK Line, as well as Japanese trading firms Sumitomo and Itochu. By Mahua Chakravarty Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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