INFRASTRUCTURE

Saudi Arabia’s giga project NEOM plans to produce 650 tonnes per day of green hydrogen in 2026. CREDIT: NEOM

MIDDLE EAST’S HYDROGEN AMBITIONS

The Gulf Cooperation Council countries are styling themselves as pioneers in the hydrogen economy and announcements on projects are coming thick and fast from the region.

Oman – already a trailblazer in the hydrogen arena – ramped up its hydrogen ambitions with the launch of the company Hydrom late in 2022 to structure and accelerate the development of the green hydrogen sector in Oman.

Fully owned by Energy Development Oman and regulated by the country’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Hydrom is a central and independent entity orchestrating national interest in green hydrogen. Its main mandate is to masterplan the sector, delineating government owned land areas, structuring associated large-scale green hydrogen projects, managing the process for their allocation to developers and overseeing their execution as well as facilitating the development of common infrastructure, connected ecosystem industries and hubs.

Hydrom intends to award land blocks for green hydrogen projects in 2023 in two bidding rounds. Round 1 will see two blocks awarded in Duqm area by the end of the first quarter of 2023, while Round 2 will see an additional two to four blocks awarded in the Dhofar area by the end of the fourth quarter of 2023.

Oman’s over-arching aim is to produce 1.25 million tonnes of green hydrogen per year by 2030.

Green hydrogen is also proving attractive to Saudi Arabia’s NEOM, a smart city being built in Tabuk Province. Coming onstream in 2025, NEOM’s green hydrogen plant is expected to be the first of several similar plants to make a hub there for green hydrogen production and innovation.

The green hydrogen will be exported and used in NEOM for a variety of solutions – including fueling clean autonomous electric vehicles.

Peter Terium, CEO of Enowa, NEOM’s Energy & Water company, commented: “NEOM is one of only six places on earth that has a perfect location when it comes to generating solar and wind energy. When combined with the desalinated water we produce, NEOM will be able to produce 650 tons of virgin green hydrogen per day. It will be home to the world’s largest green hydrogen plant.” to create the conditions for the use of hydrogen in industry,” said the Port.

“We see that parts of the value chain are manufactured all over the globe and will come as sub-systems to the factories. Think about electrolyzer stacks, transformers, compressors, and so on, which are really big pieces of equipment. Therefore, we definitely need sufficient logistics, which fits well with the developments in the breakbulk sector in the Port of Rotterdam,” Weterings said.

What is needed to support future hydrogen development? He said: “The task is so big that it is a matter of scaling up. This development has just begun and is not yet finished. However, you do see that, for example, in the industry and mobility/fuel sector, using more hydrogen also requires new investments. Those investments are also coming.”

Alliances Forming Fast

Elsewhere in Europe, a new federal hydrogen council is to be established in Belgium with the Port of AntwerpBruges’ key to the country’s strategy and projects for the importation, production and throughput of green hydrogen. Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO Port of Antwerp-Bruges, said: “Together with our partners in organizations such as the Hydrogen Import Coalition, and the major players on our port platform, we are investing in infrastructure and projects to accelerate the import, transport and production of green hydrogen.”

In the UK, national port operator Associated British Ports has partnered with Air Products to bring the first large scale, green hydrogen production facility to the UK. The facility would import green ammonia from production locations operated by Air Products and its partners around the world. This would be used to produce green hydrogen, which would decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors such as transport and industry.

However, despite the mounting excitement, Nallappan does sound a note of caution. Demand for hydrogen is not yet there in the volumes that the market is anticipating. Current demand for hydrogen is 94 million tonnes per annum, according to the

International Energy Agency, and predicted to rise to 115 million tonnes by 2030, only 20 percent more. “With the current number of projects that we have in the pipeline, that’s not going to meet even the current demand yet, but if the run rate of projects continues, I think by 2026, we could already be looking at a project pipeline that exceeds that 115 million tonnes per annum demand in 2030, predicted by the IEA. That poses a little bit of a risk for investors,” she said.

Nallappan also has advice for project cargo movers looking to get a foothold in this sector. One, identify where the key markets are and whether they align with what you’re doing at the moment. Two, identify where you fit in the value chain and if you don’t fit, how can you modify your services and products and equipment to fit. Three, build partnerships upwards with the main project developers. She lists common names as InterContinental Energy, Mitsubishi, Iwatani, Itochu, ACME Group, and Linde. “Another aspect is to collaborate with contractors who already have their foot in the door,” she added. “Many oil and gas supply chain companies already have relationships with companies like this, so engage with them and start talking about the potential of going into hydrogen.” BB

Carly Fields has reported on the shipping industry for the past 22 years, covering bunkers and broking and much in between.