Aker Horizons to supply green ammonia to Germany's VNG
Aker Horizons has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with the German gas group VNG to supply green ammonia from Narvik in Northern Norway, it said on May 9.
VNG intends to procure up to 200,000 metric tons/year of green ammonia from Aker Horizons’ green industrial hub under development in Narvik as of 2028. The green ammonia will be shipped from Narvik to terminals in Germany, where VNG will distribute it further as ammonia or hydrogen to its customers, who will use it to decarbonise their operations.
The LOI is a first step towards a firm supply agreement between the parties and could be expanded to further areas of collaboration.
“Achieving a fully-decarbonised energy system requires close collaboration between governments, local authorities, regulators, investors, and industry,” said Kristian Røkke, CEO of Aker Horizons. “Through this collaboration, Aker Horizons and VNG will accelerate the ramping up of the hydrogen economy in line with German and EU ambitions, supporting the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate industries.”
Ulf Heitmüller, CEO of VNG, said. “Our goal is to drive decarbonisation in eastern Germany, especially in industry. The purchase of green ammonia from the Narvik project might be an important step along the way.”
In January 2023, Norway and Germany reaffirmed their joint intention to ensure large-scale supply of hydrogen by 2030 and to establish the necessary infrastructure from Norway to Germany. Germany estimates the country will need by 2030 up to 130 terawatt hours (TWh) of hydrogen, including derivatives such as ammonia, methanol or synthetic fuels, of which 40-75 TWh would be made from renewable electricity.
The ammonia production capacity at Narvik is estimated at 1,000-1500 mt/day by 2028. Aker Horizons is also developing a large-scale production facility for blue hydrogen at Aukra, on the Norwegian west coast, with partners CapeOmega and Shell.
Together with Narvik, the Aukra project has the potential of being a significant contributor to Norwegian hydrogen exports to the EU, the company said.