Egypt has awarded a golden license for a USD 5.5 bn green ammonia plant in Ain Sokhna, the country’s cabinet said in a statement following its weekly meeting yesterday. The plant will have an annual production capacity of 1 mn tons and will create 10.6k jobs during the construction and operation phases, according to the statement.

Who’s building it? A company going by the name of the Egypt Green Ammonia Company was handed the license for the facility. We’ve been unable to obtain any information about the company or its ownership.

That’s not all: The 100 MW green hydrogen plant being developed by Fertiglobe, Scatec and Orascom Construction also received a license from ministers yesterday. The companies last month began commissioning the first phase of the USD 135 mn plant and signed a framework agreement at COP27. The facility will produce up to 15k tons of green hydrogen a year.

Part of Egypt’s push to become a regional hub for green energy: The government signed

nine framework agreements during COP27 with foreign companies to construct several green hydrogen and ammonia facilities in the Suez Canal Economic Zone. The facilities would cost a combined USD 83 bn and would collectively produce up to 7.6 mn tons of green ammonia and 2.7 mn tons of hydrogen a year when fully operational.

The plants were two of eight projects worth a combined USD 6.8 bn that were awarded golden licenses yesterday as part of government efforts to attract more investment into the industrial sector.

Golden licenses? Egypt’s golden licenses fast-track new industrial and infrastructure projects. Also known as “single approval licenses,” they allow investors to require only one approval that covers everything from establishing the project, including land allocation and building licensing, through to the operation and management of the project. You can check our guide on the golden license here.