Two renewable energy companies have joined forces to build a $2.5bn green hydrogen and ammonia project in Oman.

The 50:50 joint venture between Norway’s Scatec and India’s Acme Group will design and build the plant in the Duqm Special Economic Zone, about 400km south of Muscat.

The first phase is expected to produce 100,000 tonnes of green ammonia a year, to be expanded over time to 1.2 million tonnes, powered by some 500MW of solar capacity.

Raymond Carlsen, the chief executive of Scatec, commented in a press statement: “Oman has excellent solar resources and a strategic location for production of green ammonia. Acme Group has been in the forefront of green ammonia production with this project, and in Scatec we can capitalise on our expertise in renewables, project structuring and financing, execution and operation to accelerate the decarbonisation of the world.”

In its press statement, Acme quoted chairman Manoj Upadhyay as saying his company was partnering with Scatec to develop “one of the largest and earliest green ammonia projects in the world”.

The company added that the schedule for the project was “under development”. Acme has appointed US project finance company Synergy Consulting as financial and transaction adviser for the scheme.