Saudi’s Sabic sends first ammonia shipment to Japan: Saudi chemical manufacturer Sabic Agri-Nutrients sent its first low-carbon ammonia shipment to Japan last Friday, Reuters reported. The low-carbon green fuels — produced by the Saudi company using feedstock from KSA oil giant Aramco — were transported to Japanese offtaker Fuji Oil Company (FOC) via Tokyo-based transport company Mitsui OSK Lines, according to a statement by Aramco.

The details: Though the value and amount of ammonia produced by Sabic sent to the Japanese company was not disclosed nor were the energy sources that fueled production, the green fuel is classified as “low carbon” given Sabic’s sequestration of carbon generated from its ammonia manufacturing process, according to the newswire. The green fuels shipped to FOC’s oil refinery in Chiba will be used for co-fired electricity generation, according to Reuters.

Not the first Saudi-Japanese green fuels pact: Saudi mining company Ma’aden inked an MoU with Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsui & Co to become the first commercial supplier of blue ammonia to Japan last month. Japanese trading and investment conglomerate Marubeni also signed an agreement in March with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to jointly conduct a feasibility study for a green hydrogen production facility in KSA, noting it would export some of the green hydrogen to international markets. Marubeni is the largest developer in a consortium working on the USD 1 bn green ammonia SalalaH2 project in Oman, which will have a generational capacity of 1k tons per day once operational in 2028.

And feedstock provider Aramco has big export plans beyond this agreement: Aramco said it will earmark “multiple bns of USD” in a bid to establish itself as a major blue hydrogen exporter last November. Company CTO Ahmad Al Khowaiter said export discussions with Japan and South Korea were the ones “farthest along” with the company, which had sent test cargoes totaling 40 tons of blue ammonia to Japan in 2020.

REMEMBER- Japan said earlier this month it would revise its hydrogen strategy to 12 mn tons by 2040, investing upwards of USD 113 to shore up its supplies of the low-carbon fuels. Japan wants to hike its ammonia demand to 3 mn tons by the end of the decade, Reuters notes.