Jordan's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has signed a US$1 billion investment agreement with Jordan Green Ammonia (JGA) to build a green hydrogen and ammonia plant near the port of Aqaba — Jordan's first officially approved green hydrogen and ammonia project, and one of the most advanced in the Middle East.
The agreement was signed in Amman on 10 May 2026, in the presence of Prime Minister Jafar Hassan and Energy Minister Saleh Al-Kharabsheh, after cabinet clearance earlier in the month. Behind the signatures sits a partnership assembled specifically for this market: JGA is a joint venture of Hynfra, a Poland-based hydrogen and energy storage infrastructure company led by CEO Tomoho Umeda, and UAE-based industrial development group Fidelity Group, chaired at project level by Dr Wael Suleiman. Hynfra's leadership has positioned the company as part of Europe's alternative-fuels push; the Aqaba complex is its largest announced investment to date and its entry into the global green ammonia export trade.
Jordan's pitch to developers rests on three assets: strong solar radiation, available land, and a location adjacent to the Red Sea shipping lanes that carry ammonia to Europe and Asia alike. The project site at Aqaba gives the plant direct maritime export access without transiting any of the region's contested chokepoints — a logistics argument that has grown louder, not quieter, over the past three years.
The relationship between JGA and the ministry progressed through Jordan's standard sequence. An earlier memorandum gave the company a framework and a one-year window for initial feasibility studies — making it the third green hydrogen agreement the ministry had signed; cabinet approval then converted it into the kingdom's first formally approved green ammonia development. That depth of process is itself the selling point: in a global market crowded with memoranda of understanding, JGA holds a government-signed investment agreement with a defined site, offtake discussions and named technology partners.
The facility is designed as an off-grid, vertically integrated complex — deliberately separate from the national grid — powered by approximately 550 MW of solar generation with 500 MWh of energy storage. Green hydrogen produced on site will be converted into an estimated 100,000 tonnes of green ammonia per year for export, primarily to Europe and Asia. The project is expected to cut around 200,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.
Supply-chain and commercial details are already taking shape ahead of financial close. Topsoe signed the front-end engineering design (FEED) contract in March 2026, built around its ModuLite ammonia synthesis technology; framework agreements cover Sungrow alkaline and Ohmium PEM electrolysers; and a land lease of more than 1,000 hectares with the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) was signed in June 2026. On the commercial side, JGA has signed head of terms with a European fertilizer trader covering the full production volume. Financial close is targeted for the third quarter of 2027, with commercial operations from end-2030.
The Aqaba project lands in a region where green hydrogen is slowly moving from press releases to binding structures. Saudi Arabia's US$8.4 billion NEOM Green Hydrogen project — a joint venture of ACWA Power, Air Products and NEOM — remains the benchmark, with up to 4 GW of solar and wind and an exclusive 30-year ammonia offtake agreement with Air Products. In Oman, ACME Group is developing a multi-phase complex at Duqm with offtake ties to Yara. In Namibia, the Hyphen project received a US$5.93 million SEFA grant from the African Development Bank in September 2026 to advance toward final investment decision — after the withdrawal of a proposed 300,000 t/year ammonia arrangement with RWE in 2025 sharpened the industry's focus on the scarcity of creditworthy buyers.
That is what makes the Aqaba structure notable: its off-grid, storage-backed design is explicitly built around export logistics rather than grid integration, and its solar-plus-storage configuration — 550 MW PV with 500 MWh of batteries — shows battery storage being treated as core hydrogen production infrastructure, not an ancillary grid asset.
| Milestone | Date | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| MoU with ministry | 2025–2026 | Framework and one-year feasibility window; third green hydrogen agreement signed by the ministry |
| Cabinet approval | May 2026 | Jordan's first officially approved green hydrogen/ammonia project |
| Investment agreement | 10 May 2026 | US$1bn agreement signed in Amman; PM Jafar Hassan and Energy Minister Al-Kharabsheh present |
| FEED contract | March 2026 | Topsoe, around ModuLite ammonia synthesis technology |
| ASEZA land lease | June 2026 | More than 1,000 hectares at Aqaba |
| Financial close | Targeted Q3 2027 | Commercial operations from end-2030; 100,000 t/yr green ammonia |
For electrolyser and storage suppliers, the financing milestone to watch is 2027: if Aqaba closes on schedule, Jordan joins Oman and Saudi Arabia as a bankable hydrogen export market with repeat procurement ahead.
Financial close (Q3 2027) and commercial operations (end-2030) targets are consistent across Jordan Daily and trade coverage. Fidelity Group is a UAE-based industrial development group; no connection to the US asset manager of a similar name is implied. Figures cross-checked against the Ammonia Energy Association technical review, September 2026.