In what was described as a significant milestone, Omani hydrogen company Hydrom, a subsidiary of Energy Development Oman (EDO), has signed agreements to award three hydrogen projects to be developed in the Sultanate.
The agreements were signed today, 1 June, as a result of the first round of Hydrom’s public auction process to award large-scale integrated green hydrogen projects to developers.
The auction was launched in November 2022 to award land blocks in Duqm and Dhofar areas for green hydrogen projects in 2023, in order to meet the 2030 production target of 1 million tons per annum (mtpa) of green hydrogen.
As per the auction requirements, Oman expects the winning developers to deliver integrated projects, covering the full green hydrogen value chain, including renewable production, hydrogen production, hydrogen derivatives conversion and offtake.
According to Hydrom’s brief social media updates, the first project was awarded to the Amnah consortium, the winner of first round public auction for block Z1-01. Members of the consortium are Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Blue Power Partners and Al Khadra Partners.
The agreement for the second project was signed with BP Oman for block Z1-03. As disclosed, two additional agreements were also signed related to the right to use the land and the possibility of expanding the project land area.
Finally, the third project was assigned to the Green Energy Oman (GEO) consortium, the winner of block Z1-04. The consortium members include Oman Shell, OQ, EnerTech, Intercontinental Energy and Golden Wellspring Wealth for Trading.
During the ceremony, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning, the Ministry of Energy and Minerals and Hydrom signed the Head Usufruct Agreement which provides for the granting of land rights to Hydrom for the purposes of renewable energy and clean hydrogen projects as per the Royal Decree 10/2023 issued on 16 February 2023.
In addition, the company announced the formation of an Advisory Board to oversee the development of common utilities infrastructure, orchestrated by Hydrom in coordination with the lead developers of green hydrogen projects, national utility operators and international developers of green hydrogen infrastructure.
Moreover, Hydrom entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with OQ Gas Networks (OQGN) with an aim to establish collaboration between the parties in the field of green hydrogen pipeline development.
Earlier this year, Hydrom also signed six term-sheet agreements with developers from Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom (UK), Japan, Singapore, Germany, India, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for hydrogen production worth more than RO 20 billion (around $51 billion) over the next seven years.