16-07-2024

Mabanaft submits approval documents for planned construction of ammonia import terminal in Hamburg

Last Friday, 12 July, energy company Mabanaft submitted the approval documents for the planned construction of an ammonia import terminal in Hamburg to the Hamburg Authority of Environment, Climate, Energy and Agriculture (BUKEA). The ammonia import terminal will be built on Mabanaft's existing tank terminal Blumensand in the Port of Hamburg and will be used in particular to expand the hydrogen supply.

Permit application under the German Federal Immission Control Act
Subject to approval under the BImSchG, one of Mabanaft’s main construction measures includes restructuring the existing Blumensand tank storage facilities, which is wholly owned by Mabanaft's tank storage division, so that ammonia could also be imported, stored, and processed there in the future. This would require demolishing two large petroleum storage tanks. The permit application submission brings Mabanaft one step closer to realising its ammonia import terminal.

Ammonia import terminal will make significant contribution to energy transition
Philipp Kroepels, Director New Energy at Mabanaft: "With the planned import terminal in the Port of Hamburg, we have the opportunity to implement yet another piece of the energy transition and bring it to Hamburg." He adds: ”Our import terminal aims to make innovative energy solutions, such as ammonia, available for shipping and for further processing into hydrogen.”

Several actions were required prior to submission
As part of the permitting process, Mabanaft was invited by BUKEA to participate in a scoping meeting with authority representatives and other parties in January 2024. The purpose of the scoping meeting was to determine the scope of the voluntary Environmental Impact Assessment and the documents to be submitted to BUKEA.  In the spring and summer of 2023, Mabanaft also successfully completed an application conference and a HazID analysis to identify potential nautical risks.

About the planned ammonia import terminal in Hamburg
In November 2022, Mabanaft announced in the presence of the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Dr Robert Habeck and Hamburg's First Mayor Dr Peter Tschentscher, that it intends to build facilities for the import and handling of ammonia on the site of its existing Blumensand tank terminal in the Port of Hamburg. As part of the project, Mabanaft would be responsible for, among other things, the modification of the existing jetty, the demolition of two existing large tanks, the construction of a new tank for the storage of ammonia and the installation of pipelines for the transport of ammonia from the jetty to the ammonia storage tank. The facilities are scheduled to come on stream in 2027. Mabanaft's investment volume is in the triple-digit million range.