Yara Clean Ammonia Switzerland has signed a time-charter contract with Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) for an ammonia-fuelled medium gas carrier due to be delivered in November 2026.
Since 2021, Yara Clean Ammonia and NYK have jointly studied the practical application of ammonia-fuelled ammonia carrier vessels, and the companies have now concluded what is believed to be the first time charter contract for such a ship.
The use of an ammonia as fuel is expected to greatly contribute to significant reductions of GHG emissions from marine transportation and the development of an ammonia supply chain.
Murali Srinivasan, SVP Commercial, Yara Clean Ammonia, said: “Our successful collaboration with NYK enables us not only to comply with future regulations related to CO2 emissions from sea-going vessels but also helps us to ensure that our customers can receive carbon-intensity compliant clean ammonia throughout our supply chain from well to wake.”
Csaba Laszlo, VP Ammonia Trade and Shipping, Yara Clean Ammonia, added: “I am pleased to have concluded this charter party which will give us great flexibility to manage carbon emissions and product carbon intensity. I look forward to a successful cooperation in operating this new technology to its best efficiency.”
Hironobu Watanabe, Managing Executive Officer, NYK, said: “In November 2023, we released the ‘NYK Group Decarbonization Story’ declaring a target of achieving net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. We have been developing an ammonia-fuelled vessel because we believe that using alternative fuels, especially ammonia, is essential to reaching the net-zero goal. We are delighted to have concluded this time-charter contract with Yara Clean Ammonia, the world’s largest ammonia , which has highly evaluated the vessel we develop with our partner companies as a next-generation fuelled vessel. We will continue to work with Yara on building an ammonia supply chain from various aspects, not only in the maritime transportation of ammonia.”
The vessel concerned will have capacity of 40,000m3 and will be 180m long. It will sail under the Japanese flag.
Image: Charter agreement signing: left, Csaba Laszlo, Yara Clean Ammonia; right, Hironobu Watanabe, NYK (source: NYK)
