Djibouti and Mauritania rarely attract much international investor attention beyond some geopolitical jockeying for position in maritime trade. However, thanks to vast resources of sun, wind and unused land, both are emerging as potential suppliers of green hydrogen to Europe.

In early July, Australia’s Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), a subsidiary of miner Fortescue Metals Group, signed a framework deal with Djibouti’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources giving the firm access rights to study the country’s solar, wind and geothermal resources, as well as possible gas storage sites, with a view to hydrogen production.

The country’s favourable geographical position—at the southern tip of the Red Sea, on major trade routes to both Europe and Asia—is a key advantage. Should FFI’s conclusions be positive, the two parties envisage an investment agreement entailing FFI developing a green hydrogen plant in the country.

40GW – Potential projects under MoUs in Mauritania

FFI has been prospecting across northeast Africa over the past year. Deals of varying firmness have been signed with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and, most recently, Ethiopia, where it reached a provisional understanding in June envisioning a green hydrogen plant based on 10GW of renewables.

European energy importers are casting their eyes across North Africa for potential answers to the questions of decarbonisation and the need to replace Russian gas. Mauritania is attracting attention in pursuit of the latter goal by dint of BP’s vast, long-gestating Greater Tortue offshore gas project, now belatedly nearing startup.

EU backing

However, since late last year, the country’s green hydrogen potential has also attracted more attention—reflected in a formal declaration by the EU’s European Investment Bank in late June of intent to cooperate with Nouakchott on scaling up “wind, solar and green hydrogen investment”. Over the past year, Mauritania has provisionally signed up two foreign developers for multibillion-dollar projects—envisioning a combined 40GW of renewables capacity.

In late May, Serbia-based CWP Global upgraded a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed during the Cop26 climate change summit in November to a framework agreement on the estimated $40bn Aman project. The scheme calls for production of 1.7mn t/yr of green hydrogen and 10mn t/yr of green ammonia using 18GW of greenfield wind and 12GW of solar capacity installed across c.8,500km² of land in the country’s north. Highlighting the anomaly of such a titanic project for the local economy, its backers estimate it will boost GDP by up to 40-50pc and cut unemployment by a third by 2030.

Appearing almost modest by comparison, the 10GW green hydrogen project planned by London-listed Chariot Energy Group also advanced to framework agreement stage in May, following completion of prefeasibility studies.

In September, the company was granted exclusive development rights to three tracts on onshore and offshore territory spanning 14,400km² for potential renewables development. Like FFI, it is working in tandem on establishing a supply chain to Europe, signing an MoU in April with the Dutch Port of Rotterdam to facilitate the import of up to 600,000t/yr of green hydrogen.

Chariot, a Morocco-focused upstream gas firm that last year rebranded as an African “transitional energy company”, is now looking for partners to join the scheme. At current levels of interest in Mauritania and North Africa as a whole, it should be only a matter of time.

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Author: Clare Dunkley