Worley, the Australia-headquartered global engineering services company, will commence Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) work on a mega green ammonia project in Morocco for the OCP Group in the third quarter of 2024, according to the company's latest Annual Report.

In June 2023, Reuters reported that OCP, one of the world's biggest phosphates and fertiliser companies, is planning to invest $7 billion in an ammonia plant using green hydrogen, located in Tarfaya in southern Morocco.

In its Annual Report released on Tuesday, Worley said the Tarfaya project, slated to be the world’s first Power-to-X green ammonia programme, includes a transmission grid, hydrogen and ammonia plants and storage facilities and a temporary camp for 30,000 workers (growing to the creation of a city for the project’s workers and their families), all powered by wind and solar energy.

"Delivery is being led by JESA (a joint venture between OCP Group and Worley), and Worley’s team is executing the FEED. Work will commence in September 2024 and when complete, will progress to engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM)," the report said.

It said the project is expected to be operational in 2027 and is anticipated to produce one million tonnes of green ammonia per year, with potential to increase to three million tonnes per year by 2032.

The Tarfaya green ammonia project is part of OCP Group’s green growth programme, which provides for a global investment of about $12 billion over the 2023-2027 period and is based on increasing mining and fertiliser production capacities while achieving full carbon neutrality by 2040.

The June 2023 Reuters had noted that the Tarfaya project will help OCP, which is one of the biggest importers of ammonia in the world, reinforce its domestic supply chain. 
Most of the energy produced across the programme will power 2-gigawatts capacity electrolysers that will extract hydrogen from water. As part of the programme, 10 million cubic metres of water per year will be derived from the sea through desalination plants.

The project includes 2.8GW wind farm, 1 GW solar PV power plant, 2.7GWh of battery storage. The power generation and associated facilities will span an area of 100,000 hectares while the industrial site will span 100 hectares.

JESA and Worley are also working on the Jorf Hydrogen Project (JH2P), a multi-technology hydrogen facility that will power an industrial-scale green ammonia plant delivering 100,000 tonnes per year, according to the Annual report.

The project is being developed on a greenfield site adjacent to existing facilities that JESA built 15 years ago.

Currently in pre-FEED stage, FEED and detailed design are expected to commence in November 2024 and when complete, will progress to EPCM, the report said.  The project is expected to be complete in 2026, it noted.

Read more: Morocco's OCP plans $7bln green ammonia plant to avert supply problems

(Editing by Anoop Menon) (anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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