- Uniper, ConocoPhillips and JERA Americas have signed a Heads of Agreement for a sales contract: Under the terms of the agreement, which Uniper will be a core customer for the supply and will work closely with the sponsors to shape the project’s commercially attractive low-carbon hydrogen/ammonia output
- Low-carbon hydrogen/ammonia provides a pathway to lower emissions: The proposed project will leverage combined resources and project development expertise to implement technologies to reduce CO2 emissions in the US, Germany, and Japan as well as in greater Asia and Europe
- Project planning focused on achieving verifiable low carbon intensity (CI): ConocoPhillips and JERA Americas have an ambition to be a low-cost and low carbon intensity (CI) hydrogen producer. The companies can create the scale necessary to achieve these goals. As the core customer, Uniper values the aim to produce a verified, low-carbon product
- The project is to be located on U.S. Gulf Coast, which provides the combination of a skilled workforce, plentiful natural gas, deep-water ports and suitable geology for carbon capture and sequestration. Combined with supportive federal tax policies, the U.S. Gulf Coast is an ideal location to produce low-carbon fuel to support the American, European, and Asian energy transition
JERA & Uniper announced today a non-binding Heads of Agreement together with ConocoPhillips, for the sale of ammonia to Uniper, moving their cooperation on the development of a low-carbon ammonia production facility on the U.S. Gulf Coast to the next level. The announcement builds on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the parties signed in September 2022 to assess the potential for developing ammonia production facilities in the region. The project would have an initial production capacity of 2 MTPA of low-carbon ammonia with potential for expansion in the future.
ConocoPhillips and JERA Americas (a wholly owned subsidiary of JERA Co., Inc.) plan to jointly develop the production facility project which would accelerate production and supply of low-carbon fuel to markets in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and greater Asia. The project will also include evaluation and development of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) facilities. The proposed ammonia production facility would produce hydrogen and convert it into clean ammonia for transport to markets abroad with a target of achieving first commercial deliveries by the end of the decade.
Steven O’Rourke, Chief Executive Officer of JERA Americas Inc., said, “We are very pleased to announce this contracting progress with Uniper SE as a core customer for our low-carbon hydrogen/ammonia project. In close collaboration with our development partner ConocoPhillips, this builds on the sales MoU we signed last year. The rapid development of global-scale, low-carbon hydrogen/ammonia production is critical to the timely realization of our collective global energy transition initiatives. We continue to see strong demand for ammonia as a hydrogen carrier from a wide variety of users in Europe and Asia.”
Carsten Poppinga, Chief Commercial Officer for Uniper, said: “Projects like this are critical when it comes to moving responsibly toward lower emission gases while ensuring security of supply for our customers. Developing production capabilities now to ensure the clean hydrogen and ammonia volumes needed in the future is key to accelerating the energy transition in Europe and globally. This project offers real opportunities in that regard, and we are pleased to be associated with it.”
Uniper separately has also announced its plans for a "Green Wilhelmshaven" with its combination of hydrogen imports and production to create a common European hydrogen market and has already submitted the project to the German Federal Ministry of Economics as an "Important Project of Common European Interest" (IPCEI). IPCEIs are intended to promote integrated projects along the entire hydrogen value chain.