Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi will develop a green ammonia plant, with up to $1 billion invested over the coming years.
Helios Industry, a private special projects company, will develop the plant in two phases alongside local and international partners.
The project, which will be powered by an 800-megawatt solar power plant within Kizad, is expected to produce 200,000 tonnes of green ammonia from 40,000 tonnes of green hydrogen.
“The adoption of sustainability and green technology has gained significant traction within the GCC and greater Mena region over the past few years,” said Abdullah Al Hameli, head of industrial cities and the free zone cluster at Abu Dhabi Ports.
Kizad is a 410-square-kilometre industrial zone next to Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa Port, which began operations in 2012. It is a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Ports, which is owned by state holding company ADQ.
The green ammonia project will use solar energy to electrolyse water to split it into hydrogen and oxygen. The first phase of the development will have a capacity of 100MW.
The project at Kizad is one of two sustainable ammonia plants being developed in Abu Dhabi.
On Monday, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company announced the development of a massive blue ammonia project at its downstream centre in Ruwais as it looks to expand the UAE’s hydrogen economy. It will have a capacity of 1,000 kilotonnes a year.
The blue ammonia facility is currently in the design phase and will be built within the Ta’ziz industrial complex at Ruwais. Ta'ziz is a $5bn joint venture between Adnoc and ADQ.
Green and blue ammonia are convenient methods to easily store and transport hydrogen.
Blue hydrogen is a by-product of carbon dioxide that has been captured and stored. It is derived from natural gas feedstocks.
Caring for the environment is a shared responsibility
Hydrogen, a clean-burning fuel with no carbon emissions, can be obtained by reconverting green or blue ammonia into gas to use in applications such as fuel cells for cars.
The latest development is part of a pivot by Gulf oil exporters towards the export of new forms of energy.
The UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia have all announced ambitious ammonia production projects over the past year.
Conventional ammonia production is an energy-intensive process and accounts for 3 per cent of carbon emissions worldwide.
It also takes up to 2 per cent of energy consumption and accounts for up to 5 per cent of global gas consumption.
“Caring for the environment is a shared responsibility. We are committed to pioneering investment and development efforts to produce sustainable and clean energy for the future in the UAE,” said M K Saiyed, managing director of Helios Industry, which is developing the green ammonia plant.
The green ammonia plant could slash carbon dioxide emissions by more than 600,000 tonnes annually.
The emissions offset by the green ammonia plant are equal to the pollution generated by 140,000 vehicles.
The decarbonisation of the ammonia production process is an integral part of the global transition to net-zero emissions by 2050.
Squad
Ali Kasheif, Salim Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdulrahman, Mohammed Al Attas, Abdullah Ramadan, Zayed Al Ameri (Al Jazira), Mohammed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammed Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Essa, Mohammed Shaker, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah) Walid Abbas, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli), Tariq Ahmed, Jasim Yaqoub (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Muharami (Baniyas)
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
