MUSCAT: Following the successful award of Oman’s first green hydrogen block via the public auction process on Thursday, Hydrom – the orchestrator and master planner of the country’s future green hydrogen industry – is gearing up to invite bids for a second round of blocks later this month.
Around “two to three” land blocks will be offered for investment and development in the upcoming Round 2 of Phase A of Hydrom’s auction-based international tender.
These blocks, each of a sprawling 320 sq kilometres, are located in Dhofar Governorate, according to Eng Salim bin Nasser al Aufi (pictured), Minister of Energy and Minerals, who is also Chairman of Hydrom.
“We are immediately starting the process for the second bid round as promised, because we need to achieve 1 million tonnes of hydrogen production capacity by about 2030,” the Minister said. “We are going to offer 2–3 sites in the Thamrait area (of Dhofar) sometime this June.”
The announcement came during landmark agreements signed jointly by the Ministry and Hydrom with the multinational Amnah consortium for the first green hydrogen block (Z1-01) awarded through the auction route.
Amnah comprises of Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) – billed as the world’s largest dedicated fund manager within the greenfield renewable energy space; Blue Powers Partners (BPP) – Danish-based renewable energy specialists; and Al Khadra – part of Oman’s Hind Bahwan Group.
Amnah’s green hydrogen project will produce 200,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of renewable hydrogen for a number of planned green steel ventures slated to come up in the Port of Duqm area.
Also on Thursday, key agreements were also signed for Block Z1-03 and Block Z1-04 previously allocated to a pair of ‘legacy projects’ – green hydrogen schemes approved by Oman’s authorities prior to the enactment of a green hydrogen regulatory framework last October.
bp Oman signed pacts for Block Z1-03 where it plans to invest in a green hydrogen project for ammonia production and export. Output from the project is projected at 150,000 tpa of green hydrogen. Block Z1-04, which went to the Green Energy Oman (GEO) consortium, is targeting production of 150,000 tpa of green hydrogen for conversion into green ammonia for export.
All three blocks awarded on Thursday will account for a combined output of around 500,000 tpa of green hydrogen by 2030, representing around 50 per cent of Oman’s target of achieving a production of 1 million tpa by the end of the decade.
According to Al Aufi, a second land block (Z1-02), which was offered for investment as part of Round 1 initiated last November, is still the subject of negotiations and will be awarded and signed within the next “one or two months”.
Together with the winning bids for Round 2, set to be announced by Q1 2024, Oman’s commitment to achieving a green hydrogen capacity of 1 million tpa by 2030 will be fully met.
Significantly, the three blocks awarded cover a total area of 960 sq km, which account for a mere 2 per cent of the estimated 50,000 sq km of acreage earmarked by the government for green hydrogen development.
Progressive development of this massive acreage will contribute to a world-scale green output targeted at 8 million tpa by 2050, of which only a tiny proportion will be utilized for domestic consumption. The bulk is intended for export.
'We are immediately starting the process for the second bid round, because we need to achieve 1 million tonnes of hydrogen production capacity by about 2030. We are going to offer 2–3 sites in the Thamrait area sometime this June. Eng Salim bin Nasser al Aufi, Minister of Energy and Minerals
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