Mauritania, CWP Advance Aman Hydrogen Project to FEED

Mauritania's government and CWP Global have signed a comprehensive agreement advancing the Aman green hydrogen project into its front-end engineering design (FEED) phase, targeting a final investment decision (FID) before 2030.

The agreement establishes a long-term contractual framework for the project's next phases and covers financial, economic and development aspects related to its implementation, according to Mauritania's Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.

The ministry described it as the first agreement of its kind in the country's green hydrogen sector.

Aman is planned to produce around 1.2 million tonnes of green hydrogen and 6.6 million tonnes of green ammonia annually.

Green hydrogen is produced by using renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, avoiding the carbon emissions associated with conventional hydrogen production, while green ammonia, made by combining that hydrogen with nitrogen, is widely used to manufacture fertiliser and is increasingly explored as a low-carbon fuel and hydrogen carrier for export.

Project has advanced in stages since 2020

Mauritania and CWP Global launched the Aman project in 2020, followed by a memorandum of understanding in 2021 and a framework agreement in 2022 that established the legal and regulatory basis for the partnership.

This week's agreement builds on that framework by setting out the contractual terms needed to carry the project through FEED, the engineering phase in which a project's technical design, costs and timeline are finalised ahead of a final investment decision, the point at which developers commit the capital needed to begin construction.

The project is expected to support Mauritania's fertiliser industry and food security, while providing clean fuel and creating opportunities for renewable energy-related industries.

It may also underpin new industries, particularly green steel production, and improve local processing of the country's iron ore.

Reaching FID before 2030 will depend on the outcome of the FEED studies now getting under way, along with the financing and offtake arrangements Mauritania and CWP Global are able to secure for a project of Aman's scale in the years ahead.