Yara & Cepsa: paving the way for the first ammonia deliveries to Rotterdam

Cepsa to utilise Yara’s global ammonia logistics footprint

The pair have agreed to form a strategic partnership that will help realise a new green maritime corridor between Algeciras and Rotterdam. Yara Clean Ammonia will supply Cepsa with ammonia, and provide Cepsa access to its “global supply base and logistical footprint” so it can deliver ammonia to industrial & maritime customers in northwest Europe. Crucially, this builds confidence in the total supply chain being developed, and will allow Cepsa to begin marketing clean hydrogen & ammonia to its customers.

Today’s agreements are a crucial step towards the long-term viability of the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley and the implementation of the first maritime corridor of sustainable fuels that will link the South with the North of Europe…The agreements announced today give our project crucial access to markets, customers and distribution infrastructure: three key elements to unlock the potential of our Hydrogen valley.

Maarten Wetselaar, CEO of Cepsa, in Yara’s official press release, 14 June 2023

This partnership will lay a solid foundation for industrial efforts to secure clean ammonia and hydrogen for several downstream applications in Europe while securing the clean transformation goals. We are delighted to be a part of this collaborative initiative.

Magnus Krogh Ankarstrand, President of Yara Clean Ammonia, in his organisation’s official press release, 14 June 2023

The maritime corridor between Algeciras and Rotterdam was first announced in October 2022, when Cepsa agreed with the Port of Rotterdam to export ammonia and methanol from two production plants in Spain to the Netherlands. In February this year Cepsa took further steps, signing an agreement with ACE Terminal in Rotterdam to begin ammonia deliveries from 2027, and joining forces with Fertiberia to develop a 1 GW renewable hydrogen plant near Cepsa’s La Rábida energy park (some of this feedstock will be used in Fertiberia’s Palos de la Frontera ammonia & fertiliser manufacturing complex). A second ammonia production plant will be built near the Port of Algeciras itself, with an annual capacity of up to 750,000 tonnes. Cepsa’s production projects are part of the larger Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley initiative, which Yara Clean Ammonia has now joined as a partner.

Beyond delivery agreements

The new partnership between Yara and Cepsa is one in a series of similar announcements this year. The last twelve months has seen a proliferation of offtake agreements between planned production mega-projects and customers, but now we are seeing the other pieces of the supply chain puzzle fall into place. Agreements based on the use of specific import infrastructure, the development of large-scale cracking facilities at ports, agreements with pipeline operators to distribute product to industrial customers, rail distribution agreements, collaborations that link producers with existing customer bases – all these critical elements are coming together for the first ammonia deliveries in 2-3 year’s time.