Back in March 2020, Belgian marine engineering and environmental remediation company DEME Concessions and its unnamed partners from Oman announced a new green hydrogen project to come up in Oman through which its derivatives green methanol or ammonia were planned to be exported to European customers (see Belgian Firm Planning RE Powered Hydrogen Plant In Oman).
Project partners
Now, German energy company Uniper has joined the partnership with DEME Concessions and the Omani partner identified as OQ Alternative Energy under a cooperation agreement. Uniper will join the project team to provide engineering services for the facility while also negotiating an exclusive offtake agreement for green ammonia to be generated.
Uniper's CEO Middle East, John Roper explained the rationale behind joining the project provides it an opportunity to enter into green hydrogen projects that can 'potentially take advantage of some of the world's lowest LCOEs, thereby delivering cost competitive hydrogen or its derivatives, such as green ammonia, to Germany and Europe'.
Partners claimed presence of Uniper as the exclusive offtaker for green ammonia from the facility also demonstrates a 'strong business case' enabling the partners to secure 'optimal financing' for the project.
Location
Dubbed Hyport Duqm, the project will be built in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Duqm in Oman on a 150 km² renewable generation site. Currently the site is being prepared for the deployment of meteorological masts to assess solar and wind conditions here.
Phase I plan
Under phase I, the facility will install up to 1.3 GW DC of solar and wind energy generation capacity to develop a 250 MW to 500 MW green hydrogen facility to begin commercial operations in 2026. Green hydrogen thus produced through electrolysis powered by renewable energy will be further deployed to produce green ammonia.
Through this, the partners aim to establish a complete 'power-to-product value chain at utility scale' to produce competitive green hydrogen and green ammonia.
Future plans
The Hyport Duqm facility will then be connected to the Port of Duqm's new export terminal, storage infrastructure and liquid jetties, with the target to export this 'competitive' green hydrogen and green ammonia to the rest of the world, especially Europe as the continent aims to become carbon neutral by 2050 (see European Commission Proposes 40% RE In Energy Mix By 2030).
"We need to get hydrogen out of the laboratory and start using it in large-scale applications and marketable industrial solutions — we should turn it into a market and exploit its wide variety of uses," said Uniper CCO Niek den Hollander. "One way of achieving this is to import green ammonia and convert it into hydrogen, which is something we are looking at for Wilhelmshaven on Germany's North Sea coast. Germany will be heavily dependent on imports if we want to use hydrogen to help us achieve our climate goals."
Through subsequent phases, the stakeholders plan to expand the facility by transforming the entire SEZ into a Green Hydrogen Hub.
For Oman that aims to increase the share of non-oil based sectors in its GDP by 2040 to more than 90% under Oman 2040 Vision, projects like these are being touted as important for the kingdom to strengthen its presence in the global future commodity markets.
In May 2021, OQ announced a massive green hydrogen project in Oman with EnerTech and InterContinental Energy, with the help of 25 GW solar and wind energy (see 25 GW Solar & Wind For Oman's Green Hydrogen Project).
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