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EDF-led team moves on Oman hydrogen project

9 October 2024

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A consortium planning to develop an integrated green ammonia production facility in Oman’s Salalah region recently conducted a site visit in preparation for launching detailed site studies and a renewable energy measurement campaign.

The consortium comprises France’s EDF Group and its subsidiary EDF Renewables, London-based Yamna and Japan’s Electric Power Development Company (J-Power).

In a social media post, Yamna said they “explored potential locations for the project facilities in preparation for launching detailed site studies and renewable energy measurement campaign”. 

It added: “This visit marks the beginning of the advanced project development activities, bringing us one step closer to making our large-scale green ammonia project in Oman, with a planned capacity of 1 million tonnes a year.”

Hydrogen Oman (Hydrom), a subsidiary of Energy Development Oman, awarded the consortium a land block in April to develop a large-scale green ammonia project in Oman.

The team signed a project development agreement with Hydrom, which grants the consortium the exclusive right to develop, build, own, operate and maintain the project for 47 years.

Located in Oman’s Dhofar Governorate, the land block measures over 341 square kilometres.

According to a joint statement issued in April, the consortium intends to install approximately 4,500MW of wind and solar capacity coupled with battery storage and about 2,500MW of electrolyser capacity.

The produced hydrogen will then be supplied to an ammonia plant to be built in the Salalah Free Zone.

MEED reported in February that Hydrom received at least two bids for the second round of Oman’s land auction for integrated green hydrogen projects.

The land offered for auction covers an area of 960 sq km in the Dhofar region.

First auction

In June last year, Hydom awarded the first green hydrogen land blocks in Duqm and Thumrait, which were auctioned under the scheme’s first round.

The first of two blocks (Z1-01) in the public auction process launched last year was awarded to the Amnah consortium, which comprises Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), Blue Power Partners (BPP) and Al-Khadra, part of Oman’s Hind Bahwan Group.

The consortium will develop around 200,000 t/y of green hydrogen from 4.5GW of installed renewable energy capacity for planned green steel plants in the Port of Duqm, within the Special Economic Zone at Duqm (Sezad).

Hydrom awarded the second package of the first land auction to a consortium led by South Korea’s Posco and France’s Engie. The South Korean/French-led team plans to develop a green hydrogen plant with an annual capacity of 220,000 tonnes in Duqm, some 450 kilometres southwest of the Omani capital.

The six-company consortium will construct a 5,000MW power plant using solar power and other renewable energy sources, and an ammonia production factory on a 340 sq km site.

On 12 December, Hydrom awarded another hydrogen block to SalalaH2, a consortium comprising state-backed OQ Alternative Energy, Japan’s Marubeni Corporation, UAE-based Dutco Overseas and South Korea’s Samsung C&T.

The project is set to produce over 4GW of renewable energy for the production of green hydrogen, which will be processed further into green ammonia for local use and export to international green ammonia markets.

The project is estimated to produce a target of over 1 million t/y of green ammonia, with an expected production of over 175,000 tonnes of green hydrogen.

Net-zero plan

The land auctions support Oman’s Green Hydrogen Strategy, which seeks to produce 1 million t/y of green hydrogen by 2030. The sultanate aims to be the world’s sixth-largest producer and the largest Middle East exporter of green hydrogen during the same time frame.

The strategy is part of the country’s net-zero plan, which also includes replacing natural gas with green hydrogen as fuel for its main industries.  

Photo: Yamna

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Jennifer Aguinaldo

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