I had never given ammonia a second thought until I started looking properly at where energy transition money was actually going rather than where people were talking about it going. Turns out ammonia production is responsible for nearly 1% of all global CO2 emissions according to the International Energy Agency. That number stopped me in my tracks. In June 2024 Mitsui broke ground on a £780 million facility in the UAE to produce clean ammonia at scale. The Mitsui clean ammonia UAE project is not a concept or a pilot. It is under construction right now and it is one of the more interesting long term energy plays I have come across.
What Is Actually Being Built
The plant is going up in Al Ruwais in Abu Dhabi. Mitsui is working alongside TA’ZIZ, which is an ADNOC subsidiary, Fertiglobe and South Korea’s GS Energy Corporation according to Mitsui’s June 2024 announcement. Japan’s government backed Bank for International Cooperation is financing part of it. When a government puts its own financing institution behind an energy project it is not a gamble. It is a strategic decision about where the country needs to be in twenty years.
From 2027 the plant will produce one million tonnes of ammonia a year with significantly lower emissions than conventional methods. By 2030 carbon capture and storage technology being added to the site should enable full clean ammonia production according to Mitsui. A chunk of the output will go to Japan and other Asian markets. Japan cannot produce enough clean energy domestically to meet its own needs so it is building supply chains overseas to bring it in. This project is part of that plan.
Mitsui and ADNOC have worked together on LNG in the UAE since the 1970s according to Mitsui’s corporate history. I think that context gets overlooked when people read about this project. A £780 million construction commitment in another country does not happen between strangers. It happens between organisations that have spent fifty years building trust with each other. That gives this project a different kind of credibility than a freshly announced partnership between companies that met at a trade show.
Clean Ammonia: What It Is in Plain English
Ammonia is made through the Haber-Bosch process which uses around 1.8% of the world’s annual natural gas supply according to the Royal Society of Chemistry. Most of it ends up in fertilisers. The problem is that making it the traditional way produces huge amounts of CO2 as a byproduct and that CO2 just gets released into the atmosphere.
Blue ammonia, which is what the Mitsui facility will produce from 2027, uses the same process but captures and stores the CO2 instead of releasing it. Green ammonia goes further and replaces the natural gas feedstock with hydrogen from renewable energy, making the whole process carbon free from start to finish. The plan here is to start blue in 2027 and get to full clean production by 2030 as the CCS infrastructure beds in.
Why does any of this matter as a fuel? Because ammonia does not emit CO2 when you burn it. For shipping, which cannot be electrified at scale, that is a genuinely significant property. The International Maritime Organisation says shipping produces around 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and the sector has committed to net zero by 2050. A container ship cannot run on a battery. Ammonia is one of the few zero emission fuel options that actually works at the scale the industry needs.
Mitsui Clean Ammonia UAE: What This Means if You Invest
At current ammonia market prices of roughly £320 to £400 per tonne based on spot pricing data, a one million tonne per year facility generates between £320 million and £400 million in annual revenue at full capacity. Against a £780 million build cost over a 20 to 25 year operating life the numbers work. That is why the capital is going in now rather than waiting for costs to fall.
Mitsui trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under ticker 8031. You can access it through platforms like Interactive Investor or Hargreaves Lansdown which offer international shares. The main thing to be aware of is currency risk. The shares are priced in Japanese yen so your returns in pounds will partly depend on how the exchange rate moves over your holding period. That is not a dealbreaker but it is something to factor in before you buy.
If you would rather not take single-stock risk in a market you do not follow closely, clean energy ETFs that cover the hydrogen and ammonia space give you broader exposure. Hold them inside a Stocks and Shares ISA and any gains are sheltered from capital gains tax. Your ISA allowance is £20,000 per tax year according to HMRC. That is where I would start rather than picking individual stocks in Tokyo.
Mitsui Clean Ammonia UAE: Questions Worth Answering
What Is the Difference Between Blue and Green Ammonia?
Blue ammonia captures and stores the CO2 produced during manufacturing rather than releasing it. Green ammonia uses hydrogen from renewable energy as the feedstock instead of natural gas, making the whole process carbon free. The Mitsui UAE project starts blue in 2027 and moves toward clean by 2030 as the carbon capture systems come fully online. Both are a major step up from conventional production which just vents the CO2.
Why Would Shipping Companies Use Ammonia as a Fuel?
It does not emit CO2 when burned, it can be stored and transported at scale using adapted existing infrastructure and it is energy dense enough to be practical for long ocean voyages. Several major shipping companies are already ordering ammonia-capable vessels for delivery later this decade. The International Maritime Organisation’s net zero by 2050 target has focused minds significantly on finding viable alternatives to heavy fuel oil.
Can Ordinary UK Investors Actually Get Exposure to This?
Yes. Direct shares in Mitsui via an international dealing account, or indirect exposure through a clean energy or energy transition ETF inside an ISA. The ETF route is less exciting but it diversifies away the risk of being wrong about a single company in a market most UK investors do not watch closely. Check the specific holdings and ongoing charges before committing to any fund.
2027 Is the One to Watch
That is when Al Ruwais moves from a building site to a working plant. If it performs as planned it will be one of the largest low-carbon ammonia facilities on the planet and a proof of concept for everything the sector wants to build next.
I keep coming back to this project because it is the opposite of hype. Nobody is talking about clean ammonia at dinner parties. There is no retail investor frenzy around it. It is a fifty year partnership between serious industrial companies solving a genuine problem at genuine scale. Those tend to be the ones worth watching.
Iceburg Wealth does not provide regulated financial advice. Everything here is based on personal experience and research. Always do your own due diligence before making any financial decisions.