OCI Global doubling green methanol production capacity to meet demand

Euronext-listed OCI plans to double its green methanol capacity in Beaumont, Texas to 400,000 tonnes per year. The company said the move would cement its position as the world’s largest producer and supplier of green methanol.

OCI currently has 200,000 tonnes of annual green methanol production with the company saying offtakers include the road fuels market blending with petroleum to reduce emissions, users for building blocks in industrial applications, and most recently shipping.

The company supplied green methanol for the delivery voyage of Maersk’s groundbreaking 2,100 teu methanol-fuelled containership with multiple bunkering operations in South Korea, Singapore, and Europe, prior to the vessel’s arrival in Copenhagen for a naming ceremony.

For the vessel’s operations in North Europe and the Baltic fuel will initially be supplied by Norwegian energy firm Equinor, before an e-methanol plant in Southern Denmark operated by European Energy comes on stream in the second half of 2024.

OCI forecasts a huge surge in demand for green methanol from shipping reaching 6 million tonnes by 2028.

Methanol has rapidly become the alternative fuel of choice for newbuildings are there are now some 225 methanol dual-fuel ships on order. There is though question mark as to where the supply of green methanol fuel will come from.

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Ahmed El-Hoshy, CEO, OCI Global said: “We are seeing encouraging signs with regulatory support for both ammonia and methanol in shipping, such as the EU’s FuelEU maritime regulation and the latest IMO strategy bolstering the value of low carbon and green methanol and ammonia relative to fossil fuels. It is clear that both fuels will need to play an integral role to reach the IMO’s revised targets and OCI Global stands ready to supply them.”

OCI has already inked a deal to supply X-Press Feeders with green methanol in the Port of Rotterdam from 2025.

Bashir Lebada, CEO, OCI Methanol/HyFuels noted marine demand was growing a very fast pace even though we were yet to see the impact of retrofits which they believe could be an even larger market than newbuildings.