MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) partnered with Fertiglobe for the sale of blue ammonia to Idemitsu in Japan, for use in its refining and petrochemicals operations, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The sale builds upon recently announced joint efforts to enhance industrial cooperation between the UAE and Japan and support the development of new UAE-Japan blue ammonia supply chains and follows the first sale of UAE blue ammonia cargos to Itochu.
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. The shipment, which was sold at an attractive premium to grey ammonia, underscores the favorable economics for blue ammonia as an emerging source of low-carbon energy. It represents a further production milestone of a planned scale-up of blue ammonia production capabilities in Abu Dhabi, which is expected to include a low-cost debottlenecking program at Fertil.
In addition, 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.
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. Idemitsu will use the cargo to pilot the use of blue ammonia to decarbonize its refinery operations.
As MRC reported earlier, in June 2021, Indian refining giant Reliance Industries has signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) to build a multi-billion-dollar chemical project in Ruwais, marking the group’s first investment in a greenfield overseas project.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC