Author: richardhands

The government of Pakistan has published a ‘strategic roadmap’ for the country’s major Coal-to-Fertiliser (C2F) initiative. The project is being executed by the publicly-owned Fauji Fertiliser Company (FFC), and will use local coal reserves at Thar as feedstock for the ammonia plant, which will in turn feed 720,000 t/a of urea capacity. The $1.1 billion project aims to strengthen the country’s fertiliser security as well as add value to local resources. A bankable feasibility study was completed in November 2025, and the project is now in the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) and project agreements phase. Under the proposed timeline, financial closure is expected between late 2026 and 2027, while commercial operations are targeted to commence in January 2031.

Norwegian oil and gas major Equinor says that it is no longer pursuing its planned H2M Eemshaven blue hydrogen project in the Netherlands, citing policy uncertainty and insufficient funding. The project was a joint venture between Equinor and Linde, and would have produced hydrogen from natural gas piped from Norway, with a capacity of 210,000 t/a of hydrogen beginning in 2029. Around 95% of the carbon dioxide produced would then be piped back to offshore storage sites near the Norwegian coast. Equinor had received a grant of €162 million for the project from the European Innovation Fund last summer. However, uncertainties over whether the project would receive carbon credits under the EU’s RED III directive, and a lack of local hydrogen infrastructure at Eemshaven meant that the project was unable to secure offtake agreements.

Changing markets for feedstock, shifts in demand, carbon pricing and geopolitics all help dictate the location of new urea capacity.

Topsoe says that it has been selected as the ammonia technology licensor for ACWA’s Yanbu Green Hydrogen Project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The process will enable green hydrogen from the Yanbu Project to be converted into ammonia. Topsoe will also deliver engineering, proprietary equipment and catalysts to Sinopec and Tecnicas Reunidas, who have jointly been awarded the front-end engineering design (FEED) contract.

Polymer manufacturer Covestro has signed a memorandum of understanding with ammonia and urea exporter Fertiglobe and chemical producer TA’ZIZ to explore collaboration across the ammonia and nitric acid value chains. The MoU reflects the parties’ shared interest in assessing both near-term supply solutions and longer-term opportunities supporting the transition toward lower-carbon production pathways. The agreement was signed during the visit of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to the UAE.

Nitrogen+Syngas ’s annual listing of new ammonia, urea, nitric acid and ammonium nitrate plants.

Avalon Renovables says that it has begun the administrative process to obtain environmental permits for the company’s planned Arquillo green hydrogen plant at Jerez de la Frontera. The plant is one of eight green hydrogen plans planned as part of the Bays of Algeciras and Cádiz Project (PBAC), with pipeline tie-ins to the future green ammonia plant in Campo de Gibraltar. The plant will include a 47 MW solar voltaic power plant called Arquillo, feeding 35 MW of electrolysis capacity, with an estimated output of 4,900 t/a of hydrogen.

Hy2Gen has been forced to end plans for a green ammonia plant in Norway, following the withdrawal of an electricity supply agreement by the main energy provider. Iverson eFuels, co-owned by Hy2Gen and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, had been planning to build a 200,000 t/a green ammonia plant at Birkeland in Sauda, using 240 MW of electrolysis capacity. However, the plant’s operational schedule has been pushed back from an original launch date of 2027 to 2031, prompting Norwegian electrical grid operator Statnett to withdraw the 270 MW of previously allocated grid capacity at the end of December, saying that it could only offer the extra capacity once upgrades to the grid had been completed in the period 2033-35. Following several weeks of discussions, Iverson eFuels said in a statement that: “such an unresolved situation related to the completion of new network capacity is not compatible with further development of the project. On this basis, Iverson has decided to terminate the project concerning green ammonia production in Sauda. The company regrets the decision, thanks its partners, and will now consider the possibility of establishing a data centre to create new activity in Sauda.”

Pilbara Ports has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Yara Pilbara for low carbon ammonia bunkering. The companies have agreed to collaborate on government and stakeholder advocacy, develop a training program for safe ammonia handling, and are planning the necessary fuelling infrastructure at Dampier and Port Hedland ports as part of the Pilbara Clean Fuel Bunkering Initiative.

Asahi Kasei Corp says that it has begun operations at a demonstration plant using green ammonia production technology in January 2026, using hydrogen manufactured by Asahi Kasei. The plant, built by JGC, and using KBR’s K-GreeN® ammonia production technology, is part of Japan’s NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation) Green Innovation Fund project. The hydrogen feedstock comes from a 10MW alkaline water electrolysis system at the adjacent Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research facility, which Asahi Kasei has operated since 2020. Leading the design and construction of the ammonia plant, JGC will conduct the demonstration operation during the fiscal year 2026 to advance process optimisation and commercialisation studies.