Oman advances liquefied hydrogen export project

Bernd Weißbrod/dpa via Reuters Connect

• European export supply line
• Plan for LNG-style vessels
• First shipments by 2030

While countries in the Gulf have big ambitions for hydrogen projects, they are still trying to work out how to export it.

Oman, however, is advancing plans to establish what it says is the world’s first commercial scale liquid hydrogen “corridor” to export to Europe green hydrogen produced domestically.

Usually, producers think about transforming it to ammonia or delivering it through pipelines, but carrying it on vessels like liquefied natural gas (LNG) is more challenging because of technical constraints. The volatile gas needs to be refrigerated to -253C.

“We, as Oman, are going to be one of the top producers of green hydrogen by 2030,” Rumaitha Al Busaidi, Hydrom’s business development manager, told the World Hydrogen Mena Congress in Dubai. “We think liquid hydrogen can work, it is feasible.” 

Developed by Oman’s state-run hydrogen company Hydrom, the Ministry of Energy, Athens-based Ecolog and offtaker EnBW, one of Germany’s largest power companies, the project is expected to be completed in 2030.

It follows an agreement signed during Cop28 in Dubai in 2023 between Oman, the Port of Amsterdam, Zenith Energy Terminals and GasLog, outlining the development of a liquid hydrogen supply chain to transport green hydrogen from Oman to the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe.

Hydrogen has multiple creative uses including to make fuel, fertilisers and artificial sweeteners.

The Omani government has committed to build a facility in Duqm on Oman’s Arabian Sea coast to liquefy the gas.

From there, Ecolog vessels – each able to carry 2,000 tonnes of hydrogen – would then deliver the gas to Amsterdam’s hydrogen terminal, the world’s largest. The fuel would then be re-gasified and distributed through a pipeline to Germany or moved in its liquefied form by trucks in the Netherlands.

An investment decision is expected in the first half of next year, and the first commercial shipment in 2029 or 2030, Ellen Ruhotas, Ecolog’s head of hydrogen midstream, told AGBI on the sidelines of the conference.

The first phase, which consists of liquefying 50,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year, will then be scaled up later to as much as 200,000 tonnes per year, said Ruhotas.

The liquefaction of hydrogen needs a lot of electricity, according to industry experts. Yet the technology used in Oman would reduce the required amount, making the liquefied hydrogen cheaper than ammonia.

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“People picked ammonia because there are ammonia ships today,” said Ruhotas. “But ammonia is toxic, difficult to handle and needs a lot of engineering controls.”

Ruhotas said that liquefied hydrogen will take the same path as LNG. “LNG started with one country and a long-term charter agreement ownership. The same thing will happen with hydrogen,” she said. “After Europe, we plan to ship to Asia.”

GasLog, the main shareholder of Ecolog, owns and operates nearly 40 LNG vessels. 

“We need to have the hydrogen producers moving as well, and that’s not happening as quickly as we would like,” she said. “I keep screaming at them. I say, I’m ready, where are you? The off-takers also say they are ready.”