Oman’s hydrogen development entity, Hydrom, has awarded land to French energy company, Engie, following a tender process. This is the first step towards Engie’s plan to build an integrated renewable ammonia plant.
The $7 billion (€6.4 billion) project will be managed by a consortium of companies, including Posco, several South Korean power companies, Samsung Engineering and a subsidiary of Thailand’s national oil company PTTEP. The new plant is expected to export 1.2 million tonnes of green fuel to South Korea by the mid-2030s.
It will comprise of 5 GW of new wind and solar, batteries, an electrolyser producing 200,000 tonnes of hydrogen each year. There will also be a dedicated hydrogen pipeline to bring the gas to an ammonia production plant near the port of Duqm, Oman.
‘Engie has about 100 hydrogen projects globally, but this would be the biggest we participate in so far, and what’s notable is that we already have the offtakers lined up, namely our Korean consortium partners,’ says Frédéric Claux, manager of Engie’s flexible power generation for Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Feasibility studies on wind and solar potential at the site will take place first, with a final investment decision expected by 2027. The site is planned to be operational by 2030, with the first cargo of green ammonia expected in the mid-2030s.
