Oman to develop green hydrogen economy

Muscat, The Gulf Observer: Dr. Firas Ali Al Abduwani, Acting Executive Director of the Oman Hydrogen Company ‘Hydrom’, affirmed that the company seeks to accelerate efforts to develop the green hydrogen industry and economy in the Sultanate of Oman and limit carbon emissions to achieve zero carbon neutrality goals.

He added, in a statement to Oman News Agency, that the number of companies and institutions that have registered their interest with ‘Hydrom’ company amounted to more than 180 entities, including more than 50 companies that have received the qualification requirements for the first phase of the bidding process, and a number of them have passed the stage of fulfilling the qualifications and have started the bidding process, stressing that these numbers are encouraging and in line with initial expectations.

The company is wholly-owned by the Oman Energy Development Company and supervised by the Ministry of Energy and Minerals.

The Acting Executive Director of ‘Hydrom’ stated that the company since its inception began collecting studies carried out by several government agencies and companies concerned with the energy sector, and experts were formed to study the feasibility and potential of the green hydrogen field, to conduct a unified study on structuring this field from several aspects.

He pointed out that currently an area estimated at 50,000 square kilometers is suitable for renewable energy and green hydrogen projects in the Sultanate of Oman distributed in the governorates of Al Wusta and Dhofar, to which other areas are added in some other governorates, explaining that two plots of land were offered within the first batch in November of last year and usufruct agreements were signed by the first quarter of this year, and land in the Dhofar Governorate will be offered for public auctions during December of this year.

He explained that the area of each piece of land allocated for green hydrogen projects is estimated at about 320 square kilometres, which is being offered for bidding through “Hydrom”, where the investment value of each piece of land is estimated at about 4 to 5 billion US dollars.

He pointed out that the green hydrogen sector was studied from various aspects to achieve global competitiveness in terms of economic terms, development capacity and local added value, as the results showed that the plant that produces about one million tonnes annually of ammonia is equivalent to 180 thousand tonnes annually of green hydrogen, meaning that its production needs about 1.8 GW of electrolyser capacity and 3.5 GW of clean energy.

He said that “Hydrom” aims to operate at least 6 projects in the green hydrogen sector by 2030 in the central and Dhofar governorates, producing not less than one million tonnes annually of green hydrogen, which is equivalent to about 10 gigawatts of electrolyser capacity, and 20 gigawatts. of clean energy, with an expected investment of about $30 billion.