A consortium led by Engie and Posco, and which includes PTTEP and Samsung Engineering, has ambitious plans for a potential $7 billion green hydrogen project in Oman.
The consortium has been awarded the 340-square kilometre onshore concession Z1-02 in Duqm as part of the Hydrom Phase A Round 1 call for projects; downstream elements of the proposed hydrogen project will be built at the Port of Duqm.
The co-venturers plan to develop a green ammonia project with capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum. The other partners in the consortium are Korea East-West Power and Korean Southern Power Company.
The project will include up to about 5 gigawatts of new wind and solar capacity, a battery energy storage system and a renewable hydrogen plant with a capacity of about 200,000 tpa. The hydrogen will then be transported by a new pipeline to the Special Economic Zone at the Port of Duqm where it will feed the ammonia production plant.
The aim is to be exporting 1.2 million tpa of green ammonia to South Korea in 2030.
Engie detailed the project’s contract as lasting for 47 years, broken down into a seven-year development and construction phase followed by a 40-year operational period.
Building is projected to begin in 2027, with the first shipment of green ammonia to Korea planned for the second half of 2030. The consortium will perform feasibility and technical studies, to finalise the exact capital expenditure requirement for the project.
Engie describes Hydrom as “the orchestrator and master planner of Oman’s green hydrogen industry”.
“This venture will benefit from Engie’s industrial expertise. By developing renewable energies, renewable hydrogen and flexible assets such as batteries, this project is perfectly in line with the group’s strategy to accelerate the transition to carbon neutrality. It will contribute to several of our 2030 ambitions: Reaching 4 GW of hydrogen capacity and 10 GW of batteries,” said Sebastien Arbola, executive vice president in charge of flex gen and retail activities.
This project, which reaffirms the French energy giant’s commitment to accelerating the Gulf Co-operation Council’s low-carbon transition, is also in line with Korea’s national decarbonisation target, which aims to reduce the country’s carbon footprint by 40% by 2030, Engie noted.
PTTEP chief executive Montri Rawanchaikul confirmed its subsidiary FutureTech Energy Ventures and the consortium partners had been awarded the green hydrogen block and entered into a project development agreement and a sub-usufruct agreement with Oman government subsidiary Hydrom.
While most of the green hydrogen will be used to make ammonia for export, the remainder will be for Oman’s domestic consumption.
“Oman is at the forefront when it comes to driving substantial development in green hydrogen. Being granted the exclusive rights for this large-scale project is a significant milestone for PTTEP and our partners in expanding business into clean energy in one of the world’s high potential areas for renewables,” Montri said.
“PTTEP will leverage our experience and understanding of the energy business in Oman for over 20 years to contribute to the project development. The participation in this green hydrogen project will reinforce other developments of new form of energy in the future, supporting our goal to become a low-carbon organisation.”
PTTEP has upstream and midstream assets in the Middle East nation including producing oil and gas fields and a stake inn Oman LNG, the country’s only liquefied natural gas project.
