Yara joins Pilbara bunkering hub

Advocacy, training, and planning for fueling infrastrcuture

Click to learn more. Yara and Pilbara Ports will collaborate as part of the Pilbara Clean Fuel Bunkering Hub Initiative. Source: Pilbara Ports.

Pilbara Ports and Yara Pilbara have signed an MoU to bring Yara into the Pilbara Clean Fuel Bunkering Hub Initiative. The two organisations will collaborate on government and stakeholder advocacy, developing a training program for safe ammonia handling, and planning of necessary fueling infrastructure at the Ports of Dampier and Port of Port Hedland. The Hub now includes:

• Yara Pilbara, one of the largest ammonia production facilities in the world
• Pilbara Ports, which operates two of the world’s largest bulk export ports
• NH3 Clean Energy, the most advanced ammonia fuel production project in the roadmap consortium
• Oceania Marine Energy, which received AiP for its 10,000 cbm ammonia bunkering vessel design at our Ammonia Energy APAC conference last year
• Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, the first shipping line and future fuel customer to join the Hub
• And a host of other significant ammonia energy players, including: Woodside, the Australian Renewable Energy Hub, Fortescue, BHP, Chevron, Rio Tinto, and Viva Energy

We’re pleased to work alongside Yara Pilbara to promote the production of clean marine fuels in the Pilbara, and on ensuring WA plays a leading role in the global transition to low-emission shipping. The green iron corridor between the Pilbara and East Asia has the scale, stable demand, port infrastructure, and risk management experience to support the significant investment that maritime decarbonisation requires, while the Pilbara has the renewable energy resources, carbon capture and storage potential, and ammonia-based industry to lead in green fuel production.

Pilbara Ports Chief Executive Officer Samuel McSkimming in his organisation’s official press release, 5 Mar 2026

Our operations represent Australia’s largest ammonia plant, we are an established producer in the region and part of a parent company that is a global leader in the application of low-carbon ammonia. The vision of the Pilbara as a bunkering hub offers great promise and we are excited to be part of the push to make it happen.

Yara Pilbara Chief Operating Officer Laurent Trost, in Pilbara Ports’ official press release, 5 Mar 2026

One successful bunkering trial has already taken place in the Port of Dampier (Sept 2024), and another is set to occur in the Port of Port Hedland later this year. Currently, ships do not generally bunker in the Pilbara, instead taking on heavy fuel oil elsewhere for their entire outward-bound and return voyages. Pilbara Ports’ goal is for 100 per cent of bulk export vessels departing the Pilbara to be powered by low carbon fuels.