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PROJECT UPDATE- Worley to begin FEED work on Moroccan mega green ammonia plant: Australian engineering services firm Worley will start Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) work on a USD 7 bn green ammonia plant by Moroccan state-owned fertilizer and phosphate giant OCP Group next month, according to a recently released annual report (pdf). Worley said its team was executing the FEED phase for the Tarfaya project with subsequent stages moving into engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM). Delivery will be led by Jesa — a joint venture between OCP Group and Worley, according to the statement.
In numbers: The project will include a transmission grid, hydrogen and ammonia plants and storage facilities all powered by wind and solar energy, Worley said in the report. Slated to be operational by 2027, the facility will initially produce 1 mn tons of green ammonia annually with production capacity reaching 3 mn tons by 2032.
There’s updates on other projects: The FEED phase for the Jorf Hydrogen Project (JH2P) — an industrial-scale green ammonia project in Morocco — should kick off in November 2024. The green ammonia plant’s output is estimated at 100k tons annually. Delivery for the project is being led by Jesa, with completion set for 2026.
All part of an ambitious plan by OCP: The project is part of OCP’s USD 12 bn green growth program over 2023-2027 under efforts by the fertilizers giant to boost output and shift to renewable energy to help it reach carbon neutrality by 2040. Most of the energy produced from the program will power 2-GW electrolyzers that extract hydrogen from water. The program sees 10 mn cbm of water derived from sea through desalination plants annually, with green hydrogen produced by electrolyzers acting as an input to the ammonia synthesis. Green ammonia would then be produced by mixing the produced green hydrogen with nitrogen derived through air separation units, according to the report.
OCP’s been drumming up finance to foot the bill: OCP Group secured a EUR 200 mn loan in June from the German Development Bank (KfW) to reduce water use and expand renewables production. It also raised USD 2 bn for its decarbonization strategy through a dual-tranche Eurobond a week after it started the roadshow for its international bond in April. The fertilizer company also received earlier this year a total of USD 188 mn in loans for desalination and renewable energy storage projects from the AfDB, the Clean Technology Fund and the Canada-African Development Bank Climate Fund.
