Good Wednesday morning, everyone, and welcome to the Q4 2021 presentation for Saga Pure. Exactly one year ago, we had our first presentation as a green investment company. We started off with this slide as a metaphor of where the world is today in terms of climate and environment. It's illustrating quite clearly that progress not only can be, but must be continuing in a different direction than what we have been so far. To thrive as humans, we need healthy food, pure water, clean air, but also clean, abundant energy to sustain the high living standards we have come to take for granted.
In Saga Pure, we firmly believe that continued growth is not only compatible but fully dependent on sustainability. We are technology optimists. We believe that the solutions to the issues we are facing today, by and large, are either already available or being developed today. We also believe that capital used the right way is the key enabler to help these solutions to succeed, creating continued sustainable growth and progress.
This foundation has also turned into our vision, a vision that we want everyone to take part in. Our mission of pure growth is supporting our philosophy and vision. It's our guiding star as we invest. For us to survive as an investment company, we need to pick the winners. That means investing in the companies that can have the biggest impact environmentally. Only in doing that, we can also make an impact for our shareholders, attracting, hopefully, even more shareholders, making us better equipped to further help to drive towards our vision.
If you have the pleasure of meeting some of the great people from my team, all of you are left with the impression that the values listed here are the ones that drive us. These are not values we wear as clothing. These are values with deep meaning to us, both internally, externally, but also towards our vision and nature.
For those of you who are just getting to know us, here is the ultra-brief description of who we are. We are a green investment company. We're listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. We seek out and invest in the solutions that contribute to a greener future. We do that using leading industry and financial expertise. Being co-located with our biggest owner is also a great asset, and it provides us a very generous deal flow.
Over the course of 2021, we have evaluated more than 150 investment opportunities, and only invested in a handful of those. At the core of our strategy is the combination of the industry and financial expertise, both in management as well as in the board. During the first half of 2021, several of the world-leading industry experts within their fields - at least, as far as I'm concerned, the best people I know within their sectors - have joined Saga Pure. In addition to having their expertise, they're also great people.
We have, over the course of 2021, really found a very good way to work together as a team, and also to play on the strengths of each team member. This team is also crucial when we work actively with our companies. Over the last quarter, this has surely been the case with HYON, which we'll list it on Euronext Growth earlier last week.
We invest in everything from startups to IPOs, as well as established players. Our main focus is, however, on the early-stage companies. Once invested, we follow actively up. We, most often, take a board position and sometimes also interim administrative positions in the company. The industry expertise we have gives us a greater confidence when we go in early for these companies, and also makes us a much more attractive investor as we bring more than just capital to the table.
I think also that our main focus, with that being on the private early stage sector, that is one of the reasons we have a relatively high number of private investors. Through Saga Pure, they can get access to investment opportunities they otherwise wouldn't have. I also believe that this is one of the reasons that makes us relevant for the institutional investors also as they might not have the necessary internal industry competence or available research on the sector or company to make those investments comfortably.
We have a flexible ticket size and also a global reach. We have a significant global network, which we are using towards all our portfolio companies. We also have a very close contact with other investors, research institutions, and so forth, to continuously evaluate new investment opportunities, often together with others.
This is what we're looking for. We primarily invest in technologies, not asset plays. The companies we invest in, they should have unicorn potential, and the impact they have environmentally should be significant, and, obviously, also a significant growth potential internationally. The technology should be relevant in a 100-year perspective, and if it even has a strategic match with one of our current investments, it makes us extra happy.
Q4 in one word: great. In terms of net profits from operations, we ended up well above NOK 92 million, out of which NOK 74 million were realization of investments, with the main contributor being our portfolio company, Bergen Carbon Solutions. The return on equity for the full year of 2021 was close to 26% based on book value, still counting BCS as an associate. If we didn't do that, this number would be more than 3x higher. With a robust cash balance at NOK 778 million at the end of the year, we are very well-equipped for all the opportunities that certainly will come in this uncertain and exciting market we're in.
Last quarter, we included this type of setup just to give some more color on the market value development in Bergen Carbon Solutions, especially since it has such a big impact on their underlying value creation for us. Since we still have a considerable position in the company, along with a board position, it's for accounting purposes an associate company. That means that the share price development of Bergen Carbon Solutions is not taken into account for the reported results.
On this slide, you can see the various numbers of BCS, where they're showing up in our accounts and what the actual market value is. In terms of net value and profit, the difference is quite significant, nearly NOK 550 million. Taking this into account, when looking at the return on equity for 2021, we end up above 86%.
As for key developments, one of the most important things you do as an investor is obviously realizing profits and also taking losses when that is necessary. And, as mentioned on the highlights slide, we realized shares in Bergen Carbon Solutions. The company has performed really great over the course of 2021, both the company and also the share price.
We found it responsible to reduce that position as it was such a big amount of our total investments. When a European large fund contacted us also, that was an even better way of doing it. Further, following the announcement in Horisont Energi, with E.ON entering as a strategic shareholder, we decided to increase our position in the company. F irst, with 200,000 shares right after the entrance, and then 177,000 shares in the private issue.
We also, as I mentioned, have been working very closely with HYON. We raised NOK 50 million in conjunction with the listing on Euronext Growth, which took place earlier this week. We're really excited about the prospects for that company.
Based on the portfolio performance and realization of profits in Saga Pure, the board has decided to distribute NOK 0.1 per share in dividends, taking the twelve months total dividends up to NOK 0.2 per share.
Okay, let's turn to highlights for some of our investment companies, or portfolio companies. I mentioned several of the elements we're looking for already. What you see from the following updates is that all these companies, they have a significant international growth potential, and they also have a significant potential environmental impact. We also have a board position in all these companies, and have been working very actively with them since our investment. Horisont Energi, which you will hear more from later today, they are developing clean ammonia and carbon value chains.
In addition to making good progress with a number of key partners, the highlight of Q4 was certainly Enova awarding Horisont Energi nearly NOK 500 million . That was surely a stamp of approval that the company is onto something. Earlier this year, the company got an even bigger one, with E.ON entering as a strategic shareholder, confirming what we have seen of value in that company. That is a real game changer for the company, and we're really looking forward to hearing more from Horisont later today.
Bergen Carbon Solutions, they have developed a technology which converts CO2 to valuable carbon nanofibers. This material can be used to improve the key properties of nearly any material. It's been a very busy quarter for the company, and they celebrated their first commercial sale of carbon nanofibers to a customer in the U.K. They're also working with a number of international large companies, looking at how you can use this carbon nanofibers to improve the conductivity in battery anodes.
Looking at how large the battery market is, this is truly an exciting field, and we've had some good results coming in already. They've also scaled up the production units by a factor of 8, and recently announced that the company will start the process of building a full-scale factory in conjunction with that, also raising NOK 250 million. With the interesting customer dialogues that are ongoing, with the test results that are coming in, we maintain very, very high expectations for this company, and we'll continue our active role.
Then, we have Heimdall Power. They have developed a technology which can potentially revolutionize the electric grids. The technology they have developed enables real-time insight for grid operators, and that increase the flow of power through the grids, and also a safer operation of the grids. While electricity and electricity grids remain an unsexy topic among most people, the consciousness around it has certainly increased over the last 12 months. We need a strong grid for the green transition to take place. While building new grids is necessary, it's an extremely cost and time-intensive activity.
Utilizing the grids we have today to their capacity is an obvious, cheap, low-hanging fruit, which is now gaining increased attention. They've developed several pilots already across Europe, some of them in preparation for bigger tenders. They also recently got an ISO certification for this unit, obviously important for those big tenders.
There is also, obviously, numerous opportunities outside of Europe. We recently saw a rule being passed in the U.S. which actually mandates the grid operators in the U.S. to install a type of monitoring equipment, which is exactly the product that Heimdall has developed. With the electricity grid being mankind's biggest machine, with a massive untapped potential, this technology can unlock a really great value for society. 2022 and beyond is set to be truly exciting for Heimdall.
Then, we have IC Technology. They're developing a platform which addresses one of the big challenges with liquid hydrogen, how to store large amounts of it over time and over distance. They're developing solutions both for fuel tanks, carrier tanks, and land tanks. If they succeed with this, this will represent a big game changer for how liquid hydrogen is positioned in the energy value chain.
Over the last quarter, they strengthened the organization with a new CEO and CTO, and also building up a sales and market team in the company. They also have made good progress on the pilot tank construction, and we see a considerable interest from the market.
Then, we have HYON. Over the course of third and fourth quarter, as mentioned, we've been working very closely with this company. They're addressing one of the gaps in the hydrogen value chain. To have zero-emission shipping, you need to have something to fuel them with. That is an element which has not been properly addressed, so far.
Over the course of fall, they have gotten numerous new skilled employees in the company. Actually, they got everyone that they wanted, and they picked from the top shelf. They've had lots of incoming requests from projects, not only in Norway, but also outside. With the listing on the Euronext Growth and the capital raise of NOK 50 million, they are very well prepared for the further growth of the company, and everyone can also now be part of that journey.
Since what we're doing in Saga Pure is truly a team effort, it makes sense for you to get to know the team better. Last time, we had the maritime space as a sector. This time, we're going to take a deeper dive into a molecule which has gained increasing interest over the last few years. While hydrogen, until recently, has gotten all the attention among the green molecules, ammonia has been there all along. For a number of reasons, it's getting hotter and hotter, and it's no coincidence that we have our own ammonia industry expert in Saga.
It's my great pleasure to introduce to you Rob Stevens. One fun fact before we start, despite coming from a relatively flat country, I'm sure he's skied a lot more than most of the Norwegians, even the Birkebeiner enthusiasts, having spent several years as a professional skier. While his professional skiing days are in the past, he has surely not lost the hang of it, which I got to experience the full breadth of when I skied across Nordmarka forest north of Oslo in -15 degrees last winter, together with him and his wife.
Rob, please tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.
Yeah. Well, where to start with, all the compliments on the skiing? I must say I've been, this winter, been anxiously waiting on sufficient snow in Oslo, so we finally got some in January. But, I also must admit that the last few weeks, I've been watching a lot on Olympics, on whatever is ongoing.
As introduced, thank you for having me. Rob Stevens, I'm a proud father of three daughters, and as indicated, I enjoy living in Oslo and taking the cross-country skiing tracks with my wife. I'm educated as a chemical engineer at Delft University, with a master thesis in biotechnology topics. I topped that education up with a PhD in applied thermodynamics, which was actually a mix of phase equilibrium, carbon dioxide, and enzymatic catalysis.
Since my education, I started working for Yara as a product and technology developer in the research department in the Netherlands first. From that moment on, I was privileged to be allowed to travel around for the company, and being involved in management of large scale finished fertilizer, but mainly ammonia plants. In that journey, I picked up new production technologies for ammonia, but also new uses of ammonia, and that's what I took with me the last five, six years, and I'm still doing that, is looking into what ammonia can be used for.
Certainly. Many people out there don't have as special a relationship to ammonia as you have. Can you explain to us what is it? How do we make it? What is it used for today? And how big is this market in terms of economics? I mean, that's, I guess, most of our viewers are interested in.
Growing up in ammonia industry, yeah, you nearly forget to answer this question. I dug in a bit deeper on ammonia. How to say, where ammonia starts from. Ammonia, as such, is a natural molecule. It's a breakdown product of when proteins deteriorate. Every time you visit the bathroom, you are sure that some ammonia is being released.
Emphasizing that ammonia exists in nature, in principle, Nordic Northern Europe countries are using it as Baker's ammonia, as cooking salt. I think even the Scandinavian word for it is the salt of the horns of a deer, i ndicating it's originally derived from nature, and that's used as an alternative to yeast to leaven your baking goods.
As a Dutch citizen, I realized I grew up on eating ammonium chloride, because that's the additional bite in the salty licorice. For the rest, ammonia is known as the intermediate molecule to produce mineral fertilizer. 140 million tons of the large production volumes is going into mineral fertilizer.
If you're not a farmer, you would know ammonia as a precursor of nylons, so your sporting gear. You would know it from the polyurethanes. It's the insulation foam in houses. It's the car seats, some of the bedding, mattresses. You would know it as a precursor of the urea components, the glue, the melamines, whatever you find in, for example, IKEA furniture. That's where ammonia is being used as a precursor.
How it's being made? A ctually, you combine hydrogen with nitrogen from the air. How do you get the hydrogen? The hydrogen you either take out of fossil fuels, mainly natural gas by cracking it to hydrogen, or the new technologies, cracking, splitting water through electrolyzers. Combining the hydrogen and the nitrogen in the so-called Haber-Bosch reactor is an exothermic reaction, so the ammonia process, as such, is generating heat, and the energy in all ammonia processes is needed to produce the hydrogen.
And then, market.
The market.
How big is this?
Current market, 180 million tons of ammonia is being produced. 140 million tons of that goes into fertilizer, 40 million tons into the industrial products. Only 10% of the 180 million tons is being traded.
Current market with one year ago ammonia price of $200 per ton, today's price $1,200. Let's say the middle of that, $500 per ton of ammonia is a $90 billion-$100 billion market, currently. All the potential to increase.
Sounds good. No wonder you're into ammonia, if you ate it as a child.
Yes, I realized that.
Like most commodities out there, ammonia production has associated emissions with it, at least today's ammonia production. How big are these emissions and how can we reduce them?
To answer your question, ammonia production itself hardly has any emissions. It's a combination of nitrogen with hydrogen in the Haber-Bosch reactor, and you produce ammonia. It is producing the hydrogen as a feed to produce ammonia. That creates emissions, when you derive the hydrogen from natural gas, which is the majority of the steam reforming of the hydrogen production linked to ammonia, or in some countries even from coal.
Best practice, expresses ammonia is 1.6 tons of CO2 emission per ton of ammonia. When you start talking about coal-based ammonia plants, you cross the 3 or the 4 tons of CO2. If you then indicate 180 million tons of ammonia, it's at least 400 million tons of CO2, 400 million-600 million if you start including the coal-based ammonia plants. That makes the overall integrated steam methane reforming ammonia production generating 0.5% of the CO2 emissions in the world.
That's significant.
That's significant.
Yes. Obviously, a place to look when reducing emissions, and I believe it's like 1/2 the hydrogen production in the world goes to ammonia, something like that?
It's a tremendous amount. I don't have the number, but i n most of the countries where ammonia is being produced, the ammonia producer is the biggest consumer in that country of natural gas.
In addition to the applications you mentioned already, licorice, household items, fertilizer and all of that, what other things can we use ammonia for?
It already explains itself on how we produce ammonia. You put all this energy into the ammonia, you put all this hydrogen into ammonia. Ammonia contains all this energy, all this hydrogen. That means you can start using ammonia as to transport energy, to transport, hydrogen. And that's, yeah, a new application.
In a sense, you know, you're saying we can use ammonia for energy applications, but we can also use hydrogen, and we can transport hydrogen using ammonia. If we have hydrogen and ammonia, and they can pretty much do the same thing, why would we then use ammonia? Or, will we end up eventually with all ammonia, all hydrogen? What's your take?
The take is not as black and white. It's one or the only.
Yeah.
The take is looking into what we have and where we need the application. In principle, in the most efficient way, electrify what we can electrify. That means doing more with your grid. I think that's the reason we are involved in Heimdall.
Next step is when the grid is congested, or the transport distances are too high, you start thinking about storing your electrons, your power into molecules. Molecules we have currently, which are being discussed, is hydrogen, it's Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers, it's ammonia, it's methanol. Which molecule to pick when is actually a matter of how long do you need to store, how long do you need to transport, and what does it cost to make these molecules.
First step, starting with green electricity or with carbon capture, you end up with hydrogen. Storing, transporting hydrogen is restricted to a certain volume or a certain distance because then, hydrogen, then it becomes worthwhile to look at next steps.
The next step is, instead of compressed hydrogen, to go to liquid hydrogen. Liquid hydrogen still has some technology challenges, but we're working together with IC Technology to solve that. The advantage on liquid hydrogen is you only need to invest in additional energy in order to liquefy it, and then you can transport it. Trade-off between energy or additional CapEx planned investments is when you have to transport on an even longer distance and have easier storage.
A nd then, methanol and ammonia comes into place. Why ammonia and not methanol? From my point of view, methanol still contains carbon, and really net zero methanol needs to require carbon from biomass or direct air capture, in direct air capture. If you then put all this energy to capture CO2 from the air, you might as well anchor that CO2 permanently in storage. Or if it's bio, use the carbon to make new polymers instead of using the energy content. That's the reason that I'm focusing on ammonia for the longer distance, the longer duration of storage.
It's a holistic perspective.
Yes.
Of course, also, it's an advantage that we already have ammonia carriers, so you can just ship the ammonia from where you produce it to the consumer.
Ammonia is already shipped by 20 million tons per year-
Right.
... with a decent infrastructure.
Yeah. That's an advantage. With these new applications for ammonia, what are the growth prospects we're looking at over the coming years and maybe decades? Could we see a doubling of the market or even more?
No, for sure a doubling, but okay, you're asking me.
Asking the enthusiast, yeah.
If you look at the reports and announcements in order to bring long-distance shipping to net zero, again, advantage of storing your energy compared to the fossil fuels, ammonia and methanol are the candidates for efficient fueling your fuel tanks and do the long-distance shipping. Studies indicate, as well as then all the countries aligning towards zero emission shipping, is that in order to achieve the tipping point, you need 30 million tons of clean fuel. Let's say that's 50 million tons of ammonia by 2030 already.
If you want to reach zero-emission shipping, the long-distance shipping, 80% of the goods are only traded in 20% of the ports, so that would be an easy fix to look into ammonia. Ammonia is then the cheaper molecule which could be used in shipping. The volume expected for that trade is easily 400 million tons of ammonia, only for shipping fuel. I haven't, per year use.
400 million tons.
That's a doubling.
Today the market is?
180 tons.
180 tons. Today the amount of traded ammonia is?
20 million tons.
20 milion tons. We're talking 20x.
A factor of 20 being traded.
Okay. Yep.
A doubling at least being produced.
Right. Which of these new applications for ammonia do you find most compelling? Because you can also use it, y ou can use it in a power plant, you can use it as a fuel, you can basically use it where you need energy.
The most compelling, I see the shipping. It's, t he engine is in development, but it's simply the scale which an existing molecule with an existing infrastructure can bring to decarbonize shipping.
Mm-hmm.
It's in principle, it's a no-brainer. It's an easy fix. Okay, there are some barriers, some hurdles to be taken.
Yeah. We'll look into investing in some of the companies-
Yeah.
... that address those barriers. That's good. One of the arguments, you know, you sometimes see against ammonia is that it's toxic. What about HSE? Let's talk about that. Let's address that topic straight on. How safe is ammonia? How is safety being handled, you know? Can you please elaborate on that?
Yeah, on the toxicity, I mean, I started my talk that I've been eating. That's-
Yes.
Don't do this at home. Ammonia, yes, it's toxic. The beauty of ammonia is it has a self-warning feature. You already smell it at 5 ppm. Most of the policies, most of the laws say that you're allowed to work 8 hours in 25 ppm. I think most of us already would find that irritating, literally. I think you would feel it in your eyes, but that's still allowed and safe. Towards 400 ppm in the air, you survive, but nobody could stand it. At 1%, it's really dangerous. Yes, the toxicity is a risk, but not a risk which can be overcome, which can be designed.
On environmental hazard, because we're talking about ammonia as a shipping fuel, in case you would have a leak, yes, the fish in the vicinity of the leak will die. The beauty though is that at least--i t's not a beauty, but okay--a s it is a natural product, it is a natural decomposition product. The distance and the duration of which an ammonia spill will have impact is significantly smaller than, for example, an oil spill.
In case of an ammonia incident, ammonia has a second property, which is that it in case of ammonia spill, if you cover it by tarp, it will start self-condensing. You will have a liquid again, which you can pump back into a confined space.
Mm-hmm.
Being aware of the facts of toxicity, being aware of the perception that ammonia is dangerous. In principle, we, as consumers, are demanding on the design, on the features of the usefulness of a new product. The same holds for ammonia. We require a safe design, we require a decent construction, and we require education in order to implement it, the ammonia in new markets. All these features are present already in existing ammonia industry, which is the reason that existing ammonia industry has lower safety incident statistics than, for example, the petrochemical industry. For me, it's a barrier which can be overcome.
Statistics is always good, and it's reassuring to hear that at least for, how it has been so far, it's definitely not a showstopper. We've invested in one of the up-and-coming ammonia companies, Horisont Energi. I mean, we'll hear more from them later, but let's talk a little bit about them before Bjørgulf gets the microphone. In terms of their current plans, how big are these plans compared to the overall market? Just to get a feel for what we're talking about.
Well, first to answer, I'm privileged to be allowed to work with Bjørgulf in Horisont Energi. The scale is, for a startup, fantastic 1 million ton plant as a first train, and there's only one other project in the world which is looking into that.
Mm-hmm.
That's a Saudi Arabia-based NEOM project. In the current new clean ammonia markets, there are two projects which are really at scale. It's Horisont Energi and Amon, and it's NEOM in Saudi Arabia. Beauty of Horisont is that they're already thinking and designing about train two and train three.
Yeah. It could be three times as big as other similar projects.
NEOM in Saudi Arabia, y es.
That's good. What we have seen lately with the CO2 prices at record levels, with distillate and natural gas prices at record levels, what is your take on how this impacts the prospects of Horisont Energi?
It's, I mean, energy, we're all talking about energy prices nowadays, even in Norway with all the interactions with Europe. Yes, gas prices have increased, which has been a reason that ammonia prices and fertilizer prices and food prices have increased in Europe. In principle, price increase is linked to supply and demand. Supply and demand in gas is originally being linked by pipes. We read a lot in the newspapers about you know the capacity pipes natural gas into Europe. Second step is that we connected the world through LNG in the gas connection, it's supply and demand.
In case new or existing gas fields are in development or connected somewhat but not perfectly, you have an option either to invest in a pipe, which is in most cases expensive. Secondly, you can invest in LNG capacity, but the risk of future CO2 taxes versus the fuels we have now that are cleaner molecules to transport, plus the fact that it is cheaper to invest in ammonia plant than an LNG plant. That's the way Horisont Energi can move forward, a clean molecule.
Right. It's basically future-proofing the natural gas resource and transforming it into a zero carbon energy carrier. Also, I guess that they're located right there where the gas is coming out is a big advantage.
Being located where with energy sources-
Mm-hmm.
... is indeed advantage. That's what we've seen in the past on where ammonia production has been moving around the world, and that's what we're seeing now that-
Yeah.
It's not only where the energy is, but also in case of blue ammonia, where you store the CO2, where the CO2 storage is.
The higher the CO2 price, the better.
It's-
Or-
So we're-
... for Horisont, at least.
... we start discussing on okay, the alternative on LNG versus the carbon de-risk-
Mm-hmm.
... clean ammonia molecule. Part of Horisont Energi is also the development of the Polaris project, for-
Exactly.
... storing CO2.
Exactly.
For third parties included.
Finally, to wrap this up, I mean, we've had a lot of interesting facts already about ammonia, but which one is your favorite ammonia fun fact?
It's on those who are researchers reading about ammonia, not knowing what ammonia is, and then a step further, people hear about Haber-Bosch. Haber-Bosch are the inventors, and it's currently the process to produce ammonia. What people do not realize is that our bodies contain 3.2% nitrogen. 80% of this nitrogen in our bodies is coming out of the Haber-Bosch reactor. 2.5% of the nitrogen in our body has been processed through industry, the Haber-Bosch reactor, to produce ammonia.
Interesting. Thanks a lot, Rob, for the chat.
There's an opportunity to also ask Rob questions in the Q&A session afterwards. Now, we will move on to our featured investment, which is Horisont Energi.
Christmas 2020 was certainly above average hectic for many of us, and our initial investment in Horisont was announced on December 28. One year later, we are happy to say that we are very content with the investment, both in terms of what the company has delivered, but also on the share price development.
Today we're joined by the CEO of Horisont Energi, Bjørgulf Haukelidsæter Eidesen, who will give us a brief update on who they are, what they do, and the market they're operating in. With that, Bjørgulf, the floor is yours.
Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for the very interesting talk on ammonia. I guess, no better start on the presentation of Horisont Energi. My name is Bjørgulf Haukelidsæter Eidesen, and I'm the CEO of Horisont Energi.
Today, I will provide you with a brief overview of, the market, expanding a bit on what Rob said, and also on the activities of Horisont Energi. Let's kick it off with a short introduction to the company. We are founded in 2019, with the offices now in Norway and in U.K. Our head office is in Stavanger, and we have also a branch office in Oslo, and will soon open office in Hammerfest in northern Norway, and have an office in Edinburgh.
We are developing a strong team for development of ammonia projects and for offshore carbon storages. The team is currently growing now up to about 50 employees. We listed on Euronext Growth, as was told here, in January last year. It's been a great journey, and I think we have now established a very strong investor lineup.
As a company, we focus on industrial scale, I guess like Rob alluded to with the large size of the plant, and value creation and also carbon neutrality in all we do in both of our core business areas. The core business areas was mentioned. It's clean ammonia, and we say both blue and green ammonia, so we are focusing on natural gas with CCS to produce hydrogen, but also renewable energies to produce hydrogen and then synthesize this with nitrogen into ammonia. The other part of the business relates to carbon capture and storage, where we do the storage part, and also the transport part.
Shipping is also a part of the business in Horisont Energi, and we have our own shipping department, which is developing the shipping part of our value chains. In the carbon storage, it's important to emphasize that there are two main types of business in this area. It is the storage of fossil CO2, which we are into, and it's the storage of green CO2, which is related to this carbon removal. It's where you take CO2 out of the natural cycle, you store it, create a negative emission. That's also a key part of our business development.
Going on to the markets. Ammonia is a large market, that was mentioned. The European market alone is about 20 million tons, the consumption in Europe, in industrial processes mainly, for fertilizer and chemical production manufacturing.
As Rob said, we believe strongly in scaling of clean ammonia within the maritime fuel sector, but also for clean ammonia as a hydrogen carrier, maybe to a somewhat less extent, but mainly the marine fuel. The shipping market, like Rob said, we also expect it to increase up to 400 million tons by 2050. This is according to analysis by Argus, which is a quite substantial and very good analysis. I'd recommend reading for those interested.
We see the development of pricing in ammonia, driven by the ETS and also now the Carbon Border tool, which is a legislative proposal in E.U., which will impose the same carbon cost on also the imported ammonia to E.U. Currently, import is about 4 million tons annually. The Barents Blue production will be about 30%-15% of the current European market, with Horisont market share of about 5%-6%, g lobally.
Moving on to CO2, there's also a large development required to reach the targets of 1.5 degrees or 2 degrees in the worst case. 40 million tons is injected globally. To get to the 1.5 degree target, we need to scale it up 200 times and get to 8 billion tons on an annual basis. That's of both CCS and carbon removal, so both the fossil and the green CO2. Both are needed. In 2019, CO2 emissions in Europe were 3 billion tons. All of that needs to go, or most of it, and then we need to go net negative after 2050.
The European market is a very big one in carbon storage. We saw the ETS cost now closing in EUR 100 per ton. When we started the company, it was EUR 10. During our existence, we have seen a 10x increase in carbon costs in Europe. The size of the Polaris injection is about 2 million tons per year compared to the Northern Lights of 1.5 million tons. We are increasing the size of this, and we also will scale up this to potentially 8 million tons when it's fully developed.
Moving on to our ammonia business. We are located in Finnmark with our first plant. Why would we select Finnmark? It's a very good region for producing clean ammonia. It has a cold environment but no sea ice during the winter, so it's still very good marine conditions. It has among the lowest power prices in Europe. I guess we saw that now when the power prices are surging in Europe, we still have about 1/9 of the price locally in Hammerfest.
For the blue ammonia production, we actually need electrical power. We see about the need for 20 MW-30 MW per train in the Barents Blue plant. With the current pricing range between Europe and Hammerfest, it's actually about NOK 1 billion saved per year in power prices by being in this location. Very, very, very attractive. We have access to gas close to the source, gas that needs to be decarbonized.
It's a very good climate measure and being close to the gas is also very favorable in terms of a competitive advantage on the pricing side. There's also a short route to the market. Our route to market costs us about $30 per ton. Some of the competitors have to pay up to $80 per ton to get to the European market. It's a very good location also in this respect.
The project itself, it's a IPCEI project candidate. They're one of the important projects of common European interest within the hydrogen value chain in Europe. We have a very high environmental standard established for the plant through the designs that we do. We are going to be compliant to the E.U. Taxonomy, but we're going to overdeliver on those requirements.
Furthermore, it's a highly profitable endeavor, and the income side of this plant, 1 million tons per train with the current ammonia prices that Rob mentioned, about NOK 10 billion in income in total per train. 40% of that is Horisont's share. We plan to have all three trains in place by 2030.
We got a very nice Christmas present this year or last year, and that was about NOK 500 million grant from Enova for the IPCEI project. It's IPCEI grant, part of the being an IPCEI project. We are one among the first IPCEI projects from Norway ever, or one of the first two. There's a formal decision to be made early this year. That will establish us as an IPCEI project. We're not nearly completed with that process, but we are very close now to completion.
We had also a very nice announcement to make early this year, the cooperation agreement with E.ON and also E.ON entering Horisont as an investor, now the largest investor in the company. It will be a transformative cooperation. We have worked with E.ON now for one and a half years. We see that the project we can do with them will transform the company. It will give us a European reach for carbon storage. It will make us able to commercialize carbon removal on a large scale and go into clean ammonia value chains together with E.ON, complementing each other in the value chain.
On the end-to-end carbon storage business, we will see E.ON taking care of the capture side and liquefaction of CO2, and we will take the transport and storage of the CO2. With E.ON's reach and the presence in 15 countries across Europe and with the large storage potential on the Norwegian shelf, we see large scale economics in all parts of the value chain, providing a very interesting setup and probably one of the first European, Pan-European carbon storage services in the forming.
We are planning a new storage project, which will be announced and more details about this project later this year, but it will be one of the larger storages in our operations, which will be used for storage of CO2 in the business endeavor with E.ON.
We also do green ammonia. Green ammonia is important for Horisont Energi. We see that as a large factor in the growth of a clean ammonia. We are positioning ourselves with the first plant in Finnmark. It's a cooperation with St1, a Finnish company, very interesting Finnish fuel company. They use a lot of capital and resources to develop their clean business.
We are in the shaping phase of this project, and we intend to start up the project in the second half of this year as an early phase project. This is an industrial scale plant as the Barents Blue, not as big, but it will be a big one, and it further reinforces our position as a clean ammonia company.
To summarize, we are an early mover in clean ammonia with world scale production. We are early mover to be a big player in European CCS, highly attractive economics through the large scale of the operation, get an economy of scale effects, strategic partners in place, an experienced and a committed team. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Bjørgulf. As already mentioned, we're happy to be a shareholder, a very active one, and I hope you also appreciate that. Let's move on to summary and outlook. Last quarter, we saw a little bit of light in the end of the tunnel for green shares, and most of them had a nice boost in October and November. The weather got rough in December, and the downward tumble that started then has continued into the new year.
We've seen a significant repricing happening. Several cases has been presented to us numerous times, and each time a little bit cheaper. We believe that the ongoing turbulence that we are seeing now will present interesting opportunities along our way.
While the green financial correction is taking place, the underlying momentum for green tech continues to build, especially from the public side with new regulations, as we covered in previous quarters, now being set into action. While the word no will still be one of our most used words when looking at investment opportunities, we are constantly evaluating the opportunities that come our way, and some of them have even made it through the first stage when we're discussing further what to do with those.
We are, however, not in a rush to spend our money. With the team we now have in place, we have both time, money, and knowledge, which is a good place to be for an investment company, and certainly in turbulent times. We will continue to work closely with our portfolio companies, helping them reach their full potential. With people at the core of any success, we'll continue to evaluate the best setup how to grow both Saga Pure and our portfolio companies with additional great individuals helping us on our journey of pure growth.
With that, let's move on to Q&A. We've almost spent the full hour already, but if there's some questions there, let's go for those. As last time, Espen Lundaas, CFO in Saga Pure, will lead the session. We'll try to answer the questions at our best ability. Both myself, Rob and Bjørgulf are available. Espen, do we have some questions?
Thank you, Bjørn. Yes, we do have a couple of questions. We can start with a few questions to you, Bjørn. How will you be able to produce growth with a portfolio of small companies that don't make money in an inflationary environment with increasing interest rates?
Well, some of the observations are valid. We see increased interest rates, we see the inflation, and those are all factors that are affecting the macro out there. While that is important for the sector as whole, that's not that important for us as we seek out companies, the unicorns that can make that big difference. In fact, with that macro in mind, that will also probably present opportunities to us. As I mentioned in the summary, when we are in the position we are, we're debt-free, we have a significant cash holding, we have the competence, we believe that turbulence will rather create opportunities.
Thank you. We have a question related to Heimdall, and if we have any plans for listing the company in the near future.
Well, that's a question we have received numerous quarters, and the same way we will not preannounce when we buy or sell shares. We will neither preannounce our intentions for the portfolio companies we own. The capitalization and what marketplace the company, any company should be at is a continuous evaluation that the board holds. If and when the time comes, we will be sure to let you guys know.
Thank you. We have some questions related to ammonia. Can ammonia, at least with a little modification, be used as ship fuel, and how efficient and costly is it?
Yes, ammonia can be used as shipping fuel. Linked to the question on the modification, in principle, ammonia has been used as a fuel in a combustion engine already in the Second World War, both in Rjukan here in Norway, as well as in Brussels on a school bus. There is an entrepreneur in Canada who has been driving his Buick or Cadillac or whatever on ammonia. Yes, with small modifications, it can be done. The big engine manufacturers are making the modifications for the infrastructure ready. Ammonia combusts in an engine in principle the same as a fossil fuel with the same efficiency.
The disadvantage of ammonia is that it has a lesser energy density than a fossil fuel, so you have to double the amount of tanks. The cost is a matter of techno-economic analysis on what the cost of fuel will be per traveled kilometer and whatever. In the end, the same holds for green ammonia to fertilizer as ammonia into fuel. It will bring us as end consumer 1.5% of price increase on our pair of sneakers, on our iPhone, on our car, on our loaf of bread.
Thank you, Rob.
We have a last question, also related to ammonia and NH3. How stable is the formula?
Ammonia, NH3 is pretty stable. Released in nature, it will be converted by microorganisms, and that's the principle on the ammonia component of a fertilizer on being fertilized. The stability of ammonia comes with the fact that it's easy to store, -33 degrees, so not that cold at normal ambient pressure, or when we talk about ambient temperature at 15 bars. A very acceptable pressure. The stability, as we know ammonia, is normally an ammonia salts or aqueous ammonia. Aqueous ammonia we all have in our cupboards in the kitchen at home as window cleaner or a fireplace cleaner, and that stands there for ages.
Since there hasn't come any questions for Horisont, I have a question, being a shareholder, Bjørgulf, with E.ON now coming as the biggest shareholder, a significant shareholder in Horisont. E.ON is a German-based company. What is Horisont doing in terms of investor relations to get better known in the home market of E.ON? Or what plans do you have with regards to that part?
Yeah. Well, I guess following the announcement of the cooperation, I guess Horisont Energi and E.ON were all over the newspapers in Germany for several weeks. I think we've gotten a lot of attention from German investors already and we've actually been taken up to trading on the German stock exchange as a sort of a nominee, on a nominee account. It's a great interest in the German market.
What we will do further on, I guess we will continue to market ourselves towards the German market through the existing channels that we have. We're also looking into potential new channels. I think it's the German investors are really into Horisont Energi these days.
That's good to know. We all know what can happen when they really get excited about companies. With that, I think it's time to round off today. I hope you found it interesting and thanks a lot to both Bjørgulf and Rob for the contributions today. For those of you who watched either live or in the rerun, have a great day, everyone.