Section: CRUNS Industry News

QatarEnergy has announced its decision to build a new, world-scale urea production complex that will more than double Qatar’s urea production. The project is aiming to construct three ammonia production lines which will supply four new world-scale urea production trains in Mesaieed Industrial City. Total capacity for the new complex is projected to be 6.4 million t/a, more than doubling Qatar’s annual urea production from about 6 million tons per annum currently to 12.4 million tons per annum. Production from the project’s first new urea train is expected before the end of this decade.

Methanex Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire OCI Global’s international methanol business for $2.05 billion. The transaction includes OCI’s interest in two world-scale methanol facilities in Beaumont, Texas, one of which also produces ammonia. The transaction also includes a low-carbon methanol production and marketing business and a currently idled methanol facility in the Netherlands.

OCI Global says that it has reached an agreement for the sale of 100% of its equity interests in its Clean Ammonia project currently under construction in Beaumont, Texas for $2.35 billion on a cash and debt free basis. The buyer is Australian LNG and energy company Woodside Energy Group Ltd. Woodside will pay 80% of the purchase price to OCI at closing of the transaction, with the balance payable at project completion, according to agreed terms and conditions. OCI will continue to manage the construction, commissioning and startup of the facility and will continue to direct the contractors until the project is fully staffed and operational, at which point it will hand it over to Woodside. The transaction is expected to close in H2 2024, subject to shareholder approval.

In its most recent interim report, published on August 15, renewable energy developer Ørsted said that it was abandoning the FlagshipONE renewable methanol project because the anticipated market for green methanol as a marine fuel had not materialised as quickly as expected. The strategic decision comes nearly two years after final investment decision (FID) on the project.

Pres-Vac Engineering's innovative high-velocity methanol valves offers shipbuilders unique options in creating more efficient and compliant dual-fuel systems.

Hanwha Corporation and INEOS Nitriles have announced their intention to collaborate in a study for a new low-carbon ammonia facility with carbon sequestration in the USA, with a capacity of more than 1 million tonnes per annum. The location of the plant is yet to be determined. The two companies have agreed heads of terms, under which Hanwha and INEOS will jointly explore the feasibility of a facility to meet the growing global demand for ammonia with low-carbon emissions. A final investment decision is planned for 2026 with planned commercial operation in 2030.

BASF, SABIC, and Linde have jointly inaugurated the world’s first demonstration plant for large-scale electrically heated steam cracking furnaces at BASF’s Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, following three years of development, engineering, and construction work. The three companies signed a joint agreement to develop and electrically heated steam cracking furnaces in March 2021.

The board of Petrobras has approved the resumption of operations at the company’s Araucária Nitrogenados SA (ANSA) site at Araucaria, Parana state. The plant, which has the capacity to produce 475,000 t/a of ammonia and 720,000 t/a of urea, has been idled 2020.

Indian fertilizer producers Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers (MCFL) and Paradeep Phosphates (PPL) have announced that the companies intend to merge, allowing them to consolidate their operations, according to a company statement. The new merged company, to be called PPL, will have a total production capacity of 3.6 million t/a of fertilizers.

NextChem Tech, has signed a contract with Paul Wurth SA, a subsidiary of SMS group, and Norsk e-Fuel AS for a licensing and engineering design package relating to its NX CPO (catalytic partial oxidation) technology, which will be used in an industrial scale plant producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from green hydrogen and biogenic CO2 in Mosjøen, Norway. NextChem’s NX CPO technology produces synthesis gas via a very fast controlled partial oxidation reaction. When applied to synthetic fuel production, it can improve carbon efficiency recovery yield. The first plant developed by Norsk e-Fuel will have a production capacity of 40,000 t/a of green fuel and will enter operation after 2026. Based on the initial design, two additional facilities with a capacity of around 80 000 t/a each are planned to be built by 2030. The fuels will current aviation emissions.