Air Products has signed a marketing and distribution agreement with global fertilizer giant Yara for the green ammonia to be produced at the NEOM Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC) in Saudi Arabia, Air Products CEO Eduardo Menezes said during the company’s quarterly earnings call on July 30.
Under the agreement, Yara will transport and commercialize the green ammonia that is not otherwise used by Air Products to produce green hydrogen in Europe. Air Products is the offtaker for all of the ammonia produced at NGHC. The arrangement allows the ammonia to be commercialized through Yara’s existing supply chain and reduces Air Products’ need for downstream investment in green hydrogen.
NGHC is an equal, three-way joint venture between Air Products and Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and NEOM. NGHC said in March that plant construction was about 90% complete, with first ammonia to be produced in 2027. Once operational, the facility will produce up to 600 MT/d of green hydrogen, to be converted into green ammonia for export, according to the company.
Air Products said it would record a pre-tax charge of $2.9 billion in the current quarter, a result of its June 30 decision to exit the long-planned Louisiana Clean Energy Complex, its Casa Grande project in Arizona, and some smaller clean energy distribution projects. Menezes said the company is looking to recover as much money as possible from the canceled projects.
“We are in a process of taking all the data and making sure that we maximize the value we can recover from these projects by basically using part of this equipment in our own operations, like the air separation and some other equipment related to industrial gases,” Menezes said. “On the case of the ammonia loop, which is a very important asset, making sure that we can commercialize that as a full unit, and in some cases, if possible, to generate projects for Air Products.”
The ammonia loop is the ammonia synthesis section of the plant — the equipment and process that convert hydrogen and nitrogen into ammonia and continuously recycles unreacted gases until they are converted.
Air Products expects capex to fall from about $3.5 billion in the 2026 fiscal year to about $3 billion in FY 2027 and $2 billion-$2.5 billion in FY 2028 as it works through a backlog of about $3 billion in industrial gas projects (see slide below).
