With first shipments starting this year from OCI’s US facilities, Lotte Fine Chemical and OCI have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the delivery of low-carbon and green ammonia, which are appropriate products to decarbonize the chemical value chain and the power sector.
At Ulsan, Korea, the businesses are also hoping to work together to develop a worldwide supply chain of bunkering for ammonia-powered ships, which are anticipated to enter the commercial market starting in 2025.
The MOU was signed while the company was in Korea as a part of a Dutch trade mission there, which was headed by Liesje Schreinemacher, the Netherlands’ Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation.
With this MOU, OCI will begin supplying Lotte Fine Chemical this year from its current low carbon ammonia manufacturing capacity in Texas. For the first time in Korea, Lotte Fine Chemical will make OCI’s ISCC Plus bio-ammonia, made from bio-methane, available to its domestic clients. Plastic items made of this substance will be entitled to tax breaks when exported to Europe once they are bio-certified.
Future supply is anticipated to come from two sources: Fertiglobe’s green ammonia production facility in Egypt (Africa’s first green hydrogen project), whose first phase was recently commissioned, and OCI’s new, large-scale, world-class blue ammonia greenfield project being built in Texas, which is anticipated to be operational in early 2025. A joint venture between OCI and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Corporation is called Fertiglobe (ADNOC). OCI and Fertiglobe are two of the biggest ammonia and methanol producers and merchants in the world.
Longer term, the shipping industry anticipates that ammonia-powered ships will begin to be commercialized in 2025 and will require refueling at significant ports. With the installation of bunkering supply facilities at Ulsan completed by 2024, Lotte Fine Chemical will investigate ways to use its ammonia tank facilities at Ulsan port to speed up the worldwide supply chain for the bunkering of ammonia-powered vessels. OCI intends to use its ammonia storage facility in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, near Suez, Egypt, and the US Gulf to establish a global supply chain and bunkering network.
