Chile’s Mejillones port authority: 'At the moment our main focus is ammonia'

Chilean port authority Complejo Portuario Mejillones (CPM) has green ammonia exports in its crosshairs, the state-owned company’s CEO, Álvaro Arroyo, told green hydrogen ecosystem stakeholders.

A subsidiary of state copper miner Codelco, CPM operates the Antofagasta region port complex under the landlord model, where it provides basic infrastructure and concessionaires develop and operate the individual terminals.

“Our strategy is to build and provide facilities for storage and export of green ammonia,” Arroyo said during hydrogen industry conference H2LAC, held in Chilean capital Santiago. “At the moment, our main focus is ammonia.”

Potential exporters are eying derivatives ammonia and methanol, given their relative ease of their transport and storage compared with hydrogen.  

Arroyo said officials were working on associated plans.

“We’re updating our port master plan and we’re looking at how to provide these facilities,” Arroyo said. Options include building a new liquid bulk terminal or adapting existing infrastructure. 

Around 25 Antofagasta green hydrogen projects have been announced publicly. The region is an industrial, logistics and mining hub. Among the most advanced is MAE’s US$2.5bn Volta green ammonia project, which this year entered the environmental review system. Volta is planned for a site on the outskirts of the city of Mejillones.

At Mejillones port, grain terminal concessionaire TGN is completing an expansion project, work that involves building new mooring facilities for the dispatch of mine concentrates.  

Further south, at Chile’s biggest port, San Antonio, the state-owned operator is incorporating the likes of fully electric and green hydrogen-powered logistics equipment into a planned expansion. 

Work could start at the Valparaíso region initiative in 2026-27, with the first vessel possibly docking in 2036, said Ramón Castañeda, CEO of the authority, Empresa Portuaria San Antonio.

Several concessionaires operate terminals at the port.