Danish shipping group AP Moller-Maersk A/S (CPH:MAERSK-B) and its parent have launched a new company to develop, own and operate green methanol production facilities with a target to achieve an annual production capacity of over three million tonnes by 2030.
The new entity, called C2X, will invest in large-scale green methanol production facilities, starting with projects near the Suez Canal in Egypt and the port of Huelva in Spain. It will aim at supplying customers in the chemicals and shipping sectors, including Maersk, according to a statement released on Thursday.
Do you know we have a daily hydrogen newsletter? Subscribe here for free!
“There is a pressing environmental requirement to scale the production of green methanol. C2X was founded to enable the energy transition in several hard to abate industries, including plastics, glues, textiles and fuels,” said Robert Uggla, CEO of A.P. Moller Holding, the parent of the container shipping firm which will be the majority owner of C2X.
The new business, backed by a team of 60 people, is led by CEO Brian Davis, a former executive at Shell and Marathon Petroleum Corp.
“Our focus is on developing our own large-scale projects and selective investments into attractive developments where we can help deliver those projects through access to our capital, expertise and commercialization,” Davis noted in the statement.
Maersk presented C2X on the same day that it held a christening ceremony for the world’s first methanol-enabled container vessel which was named by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. Laura Maersk will run on green methanol supplied by Norwegian oil and gas group Equinor until the first half of 2024.
Maersk has 24 additional methanol vessels on order for delivery between 2024 and 2027 and has a policy to only order new, owned vessels that come with a green fuel option.
Last year, the Danish firm entered into a number of strategic partnerships to source at least 730,000 tonnes of green methanol annually by end-2025. At the time, it said that the contracts would secure the fuel needed for the first 12 green container vessels on order.
Image source: A.P. Moller - Maersk.
