Omani hydrogen regulator Hydrom has signed binding term sheets with six green hydrogen projects. These include two projects by BP—one in Duqm and another in Dhofar—as well as the 1.8mn t/yr Green Energy Oman project, in which Shell took an operating stake earlier this year.

Other projects that signed agreements include a green hydrogen and ammonia project in Duqm developed by India’s Acme; Hyport in Duqm developed by Belgium’s Deme and Omani state-owned OQ; and SalalaH2 in Salalah developed by a consortium of OQ, Japan’s Marubeni, industrial gases firm Linde, UAE engineering firm Dutco.

Combined, the projects are expected to produce more than 700,000t/yr of green hydrogen to be used for both local industrial offtake and processed into energy carriers for export. The projects are also expected to require $20bn in investment, including in shared infrastructure.

700,000t/yr – Combined production capacity of the six projects

The binding term sheets aim to progress legacy projects that had already signed development or land reservation agreements in previous years, separate to the land allocation auction Hydrom opened in November last year. Hydrom has today closed the auction to bids and plans to announce the results at the end of next month.

“We are delighted to sign these binding commercial term sheets with the first green hydrogen projects developers in our journey towards decarbonisation,” says Oman’s minister for energy and minerals, Salim al-Aufi.

“While these agreements form the first testimony of our success towards decarbonisation, we look forward to signing more agreements once we receive the results of the first public auction round that is currently being conducted by Hydrom,” he adds.

The ministry’s director-general for renewable energy and clean hydrogen, Abdulaziz al-Shidhani, notes that the binding agreements were signed with a wide range of international companies. “We witnessed today commitments made by key developers coming from Belgium, Japan, the UK, the Netherlands, India, UAE, Kuwait, Singapore, Germany and Oman.”

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Author: Polly Martin