OCI NV, Amsterdam, said on June 15 it has made a final investment decision (FID) for the first phase of its ammonia import terminal expansion project in the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Throughput capacity initially will be increased from the current around 400,000 mt/y to up to 1.2 million mt/y, and will be achieved through low-cost upgrades to OCI’s existing infrastructure. Completion is expected in 2023.
OCI estimates the total investment cost for the first phase to be below $20 million.
For the second phase, a basic engineering package has been completed for the construction of a new world-scale ammonia tank at the terminal, which, along with a scale-up in jetty infrastructure, will allow a potential increase in throughput to above 3 million mt/y.
OCI plans to start permitting activities this year.
“[The decision to go ahead with] the expansion follows the significant increase in ammonia imports during the past year to compensate for lower European ammonia production due to volatile and high gas prices, which is expected to continue in the medium term,” the company said.
At Green Markets’ press time, OCI was reported to be halting production at one of its two ammonia units in the Netherlands due to spiking natural prices, but will continue downstream production using imported ammonia.
In addition, the expansion will also serve the emerging large-scale demand for low carbon ammonia as a fuel, including from ammonia-fueled vessels, expected to first launch in 2025.
OCI’s announcement comes at a time when the shipping industry is assessing its future fuel requirements. Hamburg-based classification society DNV expects the first ammonia-fueled vessels to hit the water in the second half of this decade, but large-scale uptake of this technology is not expected until the early 2030s.
But by 2050, DNV believes ammonia will account for some 35% of the shipping fuel mix.
OCI highlighted that its Rotterdam ammonia terminal is strategically located to enable the import of blue and green ammonia from the company’s global operations in the Middle East and North Africa at Fertiglobe and the U.S., connecting the key infrastructure to serve Europe’s future hydrogen deficit.
The company last November reported that it had increased throughput capabilities at the terminal, and had added a fourth dedicated ammonia charter vessel “to enhance its ammonia logistics” (GM Nov. 12, 2021). This, it said, enabled the company to continue downstream production in Europe and to weather volatility in feedstock prices by sourcing “record volumes” of ammonia from Fertiglobe and the U.S. to its Dutch operations.