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Abu Dhabi National Oil Company announced the development of a 1,000-kilotonne blue ammonia facility at its downstream industrial hub of Ruwais on Monday.
But what is blue ammonia and what role does it have in the UAE s rapidly-evolving hydrogen strategy?
What is ammonia?
Ammonia is a chemical compound that is important to the global fertiliser industry. It consists of nitrogen and hydrogen and is formed with one molecule of the former and three of the latter.
Apart from fertilisers, ammonia has a variety of other uses - in pharmaceuticals, textiles, cleaning products and for wastewater treatment. The production of ammonia is a lucrative market valued at $72.8 billion last year, according to the Ammonia Market 2021 report.
The attack is the biggest of its kind on a US pipeline. At this time, our primary focus is the safe and efficient restoration of our service and our efforts to return to normal operation,” the company said in a statement.
The company has not yet mentioned when it will resume service.
US crude futures, which settled 0.29 per cent higher at $64.90 per barrel on Friday, are expected to make significant gains due to the outage. I expect WTI [West Texas Intermediate] to open higher tomorrow as it has the potential to disrupt supplies throughout the US North East, said Jeffrey Halley, Asia Pacific senior market analyst, at Oanda.
The company declared an interim cash dividend of Dh618m for the first quarter.
Taqa s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 12 per cent, due to higher revenue, lower operating expenses and higher income from associates.
Taqa, which also operates oil and gas assets, reached average production volumes of 120 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, supported by higher production in Europe.
On Sunday, the company raised $1.5bn through a dual-tranche bond issue to fund its low-carbon growth plans and buy back some of its outstanding corporate bonds. In 2021, we hit the ground running with our recent bond issuance which received strong endorsement from investors around the world, showcasing Taqa s investment attractiveness and our commitment to delivering on our strategy, said Mr Thabet.
A rising US dollar was behind the setback to both benchmarks, he added.
However, the worsening situation in India, the world s third-largest oil consumer, also weighs heavily on the markets as states impose lockdowns to stop the spread of the virus and cope with a shortage of oxygen.
States including West Bengal in the east, Karnataka in the south and the western Gujarat, imposed shutdowns on Sunday.
Covid-19 infections continue to set fresh daily records in India, which registered 370,059 new cases and 3,422 new deaths on Sunday, according to Worldometer, which tracks the pandemic. The country has nearly 20 million infections ranking it second to the US, which leads the world with over 33 million Covid-19 cases.
The group plans to increase output by 350,000 bpd in May and June and will add 450,000 bpd in July.
Saudi Arabia, which had supported the group s restrictions by volunteering to cut 1 million bpd until April, will phase out the curbs from May onwards.
Riyadh will cut 250,000 bpd in May, 350,000 bpd in June and 400,000 bpd in July.
Opec+ delayed a ministerial meeting of producers set for today to June 1 and urged producers to remain vigilant and flexible amid uncertain market conditions. The decision to hold will provide some relief to markets in the form of stable volumes rather than the surprise production decisions that Opec+ has endorsed several times this year, said Edward Bell, senior director, market economic at Emirates NBD.