UAE’s Fertiglobe Plans IPO of 13.8% Stake

One of Fertiglobe’s facilities (Asharq Al-Awsat)
One of Fertiglobe’s facilities (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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UAE’s Fertiglobe Plans IPO of 13.8% Stake

One of Fertiglobe’s facilities (Asharq Al-Awsat)
One of Fertiglobe’s facilities (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and chemical producer OCI N.V. plan an initial public offering (IPO) of 13.8 percent of the shares in fertilizer joint venture Fertiglobe on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).

The Offering will be the first listing of a free zone company onshore in the UAE and is open to all citizens and residents of the UAE as well as local and international institutional investors in several countries, the joint venture said on Tuesday.

UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, and Fertiglobe Chairman Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber said the launch of Fertiglobe’s IPO exemplifies ADNOC’s pivotal role in driving the growth and diversification of the nation’s economy, supporting the further development of the UAE’s private sector and equity capital markets, and attracting foreign direct investment.

He explained that the IPO will be the first listing of a free zone company onshore in the UAE and is open to all citizens and residents of the UAE as well as local and international institutional investors in several countries.

Fertiglobe offers a unique investment opportunity to access an increasingly critical global sector while also benefiting from emerging opportunities in the low-carbon ammonia value chain and the hydrogen economy, according to Jaber.

Fertiglobe was formed in September 2019 as a strategic partnership between OCI (58%) and ADNOC (42%), creating the world’s largest seaborne exporter of urea and ammonia combined, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s largest producer by production capacity, and an early mover in clean ammonia.

Fertiglobe owns production facilities in the UAE, Egypt, and Algeria.

For his part, Executive Chairman of OCI NV and Vice Chairman of Fertiglobe Nassef Sawiris announced Fertiglobe’s intention to float on the ADX, saying it marks another milestone in Fertiglobe’s growth journey since its creation in 2019.

“As a pure play nitrogen company and an early mover in clean ammonia, it enhances the visibility of Fertiglobe in the marketplace, including its financial performance, attributes that support a robust dividend capacity, commercial positioning, and unlocking of various strategic avenues of growth.”

Global demand for carbon-free ammonia is expected to increase significantly, estimated at 26 million tons by 2030 and 40 million tons in 2035.



Saudi Aramco Signs Second Phase of Its Jafurah Gas Field

This picture shows Aramco tower (C) at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh on April 16, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)
This picture shows Aramco tower (C) at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh on April 16, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)
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Saudi Aramco Signs Second Phase of Its Jafurah Gas Field

This picture shows Aramco tower (C) at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh on April 16, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)
This picture shows Aramco tower (C) at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh on April 16, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia's state oil company Aramco said it has signed contracts for the second phase of the expansion of its Jafurah gas field and the third phase of expanding its main gas network.

The awarded contracts are worth more than $25 billion, and will target sales gas production growth of more than 60% by 2030, compared to 2021 levels.

Aramco President and CEO Amin H. Nasser said the contract awards "demonstrate our firm belief in the future of gas as an important energy source, as well as a vital feedstock for downstream industries. The scale of our ongoing investment at Jafurah and the expansion of our Master Gas System underscores our intention to further integrate and grow our gas business to meet anticipated rising demand."

"This complements the diversification of our portfolio, creates new employment opportunities, and supports the Kingdom’s transition towards a lower-emission power grid, in which gas and renewables gradually displace liquids-based power generation. To get where we are today, a lot of hard work, innovation and a strong ‘can do’ spirit has been demonstrated by teams across our vast network of suppliers and service providers, who have joined Aramco on this journey to build and expand our world-class energy infrastructure,” he added.

According to Aramco, the Company has awarded 16 contracts, worth a combined total of around $12.4 billion, for phase two development at Jafurah. The work will involve construction of gas compression facilities and associated pipelines, expansion of the Jafurah Gas Plant including construction of gas processing trains, and utilities, sulfur and export facilities. It will also involve construction of the Company’s new Riyas Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) fractionation facilities in Jubail — including NGL fractionation trains, and utilities, storage and export facilities — to process NGL received from Jafurah.

Another 15 lump sum turnkey contracts, worth a combined total of around $8.8 billion, have been awarded to commence the phase three expansion of the Master Gas System, which delivers natural gas to customers across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The expansion, being conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy, will increase the size of the network and raise its total capacity by an additional 3.15 billion standard cubic feet per day (bscfd) by 2028, through the installation of around 4,000km of pipelines and 17 new gas compression trains.

An additional 23 gas rig contracts worth $2.4bn have also been awarded, along with two directional drilling contracts worth $612 million. Meanwhile, 13 well tie-in contracts at Jafurah, worth a total of $1.63bn, have been awarded between December 2022 and May 2024.

Progress at Jafurah

The Jafurah unconventional gas field is estimated to contain 229 trillion standard cubic feet of raw gas and 75 billion Stock Tank Barrels of condensate. Phase one of the Jafurah development program, which commenced in November 2021, is progressing on schedule with initial start-up anticipated in the third quarter of 2025. Aramco expects total overall lifecycle investment at Jafurah to exceed $100 billion and production to reach a sustainable sales gas rate of two billion standard cubic feet per day by 2030, in addition to significant volumes of ethane, NGL and condensate.