OCI to divest US clean ammonia project

The Australian energy firm Woodside Energy has agreed to purchase OCI Global’s Beaumont, Texas, low-carbon ammonia project for $2.35 billion. OCI broke ground on the project in 2022 and plans to complete it in 2025. OCI is building an ammonia plant with 1.1 million metric tons of capacity at a cost of $1 billion. The industrial gas firm Linde will supply that facility with hydrogen produced from natural gas. ExxonMobil signed on to transport and store carbon dioxide emissions generated by the complex from hydrogen production. OCI has been liquidating assets. It is selling its Fertiglobe nitrogen fertilizer joint venture stake to Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and has sold a fertilizer plant in Wever, Iowa, to Koch Industries. For Woodside, the transaction goes a long way toward its goal of spending $5 billion in clean energy projects by 2030.