Novatek to supply Uniper with blue ammonia

Russia's Novatek has signed a term sheet with Germany's Uniper on the long-term supply of up to 1.2mn metric tons/year of blue ammonia, the companies said on December 23.

The ammonia will be produced at Novatek's planned Obskiy gas chemical complex (GCC), currently undergoing design work, and delivered to Uniper's planned ammonia import terminal in Wilhemshaven. That terminal will be equipped with an ammonia cracker that runs on renewable power.

The ammonia will serve as a carrier of hydrogen, which can be fed into a future German hydrogen system, as well as supplied directly as a low-carbon feedstock. The new term sheet builds on a memorandum that Novatek and Uniper signed on developing a hydrogen supply chain between Russia and west Europe in January.

"Our strategy pays significant attention to clean energy supplies, and we consider ammonia as the most efficient hydrogen carrier for seaborne transportation," Novatek chairman Leonid Mikhelson commented. 

The Obskiy project was previously envisaged as an LNG production facility, but that plan was dropped in favour of a plant to produce low-carbon hydrogen, ammonia and methanol. Likewise, Uniper previously wanted to build an LNG import terminal in Wilhemshaven, but abandoned that plan for an ammonia/hydrogen facility.