USTDA Grants $6M for Preliminary Design of Massive Green Ammonia Plant in Morocco

On 28 July 2028, the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) signed an agreement to grant ORNX USD 5.7 million to carry out the front-end engineering and design (FEED) for the massive Green Ammonia project in Morocco. The signing ceremony took place at the project site in Laayoune, the largest city in Morocco’s southern provinces.

USTDA Deputy Director Thomas Hardy and ORNX CEO Peter Gish signed the document. The Governor of Laayoune Region, Abdeslam Bekrate, and the President of the Laayoune Regional Council, Sidi Errachid, as well as US Ambassador to Morocco, Duke Buchan III, attended the signing ceremony.

ORNX has selected a consortium of US companies led by Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), including GE Vernova, Electric Hydrogen (EH2), and Terabase to undertake the study. One key aspect of the study is the evaluation of the new electrolyzer technology from EH2.

The Project is designed for a capacity of 560,000 tonnes of green ammonia annually. Its cost is estimated at nearly USD 35 billion.

Using the green label, the power source for the plant will have to come mostly from renewable sources. To power the energy-intensive industrial ammonia synthesis process, the engineering team hopes to use a combination of energy storage systems and grid power to overcome the challenges caused by intermittent wind and solar energy.

The 25-year financial projection and profitability will form the core of the marketing deck to pitch the project to potential financiers, including commercial banks, development finance institutions (DFI), and other institutional investors,

The produced ammonia is mostly slated for decarbonizing ships and as a feedstock for fertilizer production by Morocco’s state-owned OCP Group. It is to be recalled that USTDA renewed an MoU with AfDB