Oman is taking important steps towards developing green hydrogen economy

Muscat: Dr. Firas bin Ali Al Abdwani, Acting Executive Director of the Oman Hydrogen Company “Hydrom”, affirmed that the company wholly owned by the Oman Energy Development Company and supervised by the Ministry of Energy and Minerals seeks to accelerate efforts to develop the green hydrogen industry and economy in the Sultanate of Oman and limit of 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 the “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 begun the bidding process, stressing that These numbers are encouraging and in line with initial expectations.

The Acting Executive Director of “Hydrom” clarified that the company began, since its inception, to collect studies carried out by several government agencies and companies concerned with the energy sector, teams and houses of expertise that 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 such as enablers. investment challenges and opportunities.

He pointed out that there is currently an area estimated at 50,000 square kilometers 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 to That the usufruct agreements and the development of projects be signed by the first quarter of this year, and between two and four lands in the Dhofar Governorate will be offered for public auctions to be awarded during the month of 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 kilometers, which is being offered for auction 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 tons annually of ammonia is equivalent to 180 thousand tons annually of green hydrogen, i.e. 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 tons 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.

It is noteworthy that global expectations for hydrogen production are directed towards producing about 400 million tons of hydrogen per year by 2050, of which 200 million tons are green hydrogen, with expectations for the establishment of more than 900 projects, where the announced projects in the construction or operation phase currently constitute 1 percent. More than 25 countries around the world have announced their ambitions and plans to establish projects in this field.