MUSCAT: Registrations opened on Thursday, June 22, 2023, for yet another round of bidding for three massive land blocks, covering a total area of 960 sq kilometres, earmarked for green hydrogen projects in Dhofar Governorate in the south of the Sultanate of Oman.
The launch of Round 2 (Phase A), covering these new concessions, came at the formal conclusion of the Round 1 on Wednesday, with the signing of landmark agreements with two sets of developers who were awarded land blocks under Oman’s auction system and ‘legacy’ track. Both tracks are being overseen by Hydrogen Oman (Hydrom), the orchestrator and master-planner of the nation’s green hydrogen industry.
Announcing the launch of Round 2, Eng Salim bin Nasser al Aufi (pictured), Minister of Energy and Minerals, and Chairman of Hydrom, said the new bid round underscored the strong momentum driving Oman’s green hydrogen journey.
“Today, we are launching the second round of the bidding process, the first round having been launched back in November last year,” Al Aufi said. “Today, we are closing out that round, and at the same time, we are launching as we promised before the end of the second quarter of this year, the second round.” Speaking just before signing a pair of major agreements with consortiums - one led by Engie and POSCO and the other by the partnership of DEME Group and OQ Alternative Energy (Oman) delivering the HYPORT Duqm project – he said the second round will focus on renewable resource-rich acreage in Dhofar Governorate.
All three blocks will be part of a competitive auction system overseen by Hydrom, said Al Aufi, adding that registrations will remain open for at least around 10 weeks to allow interested developers – both new players and those that have registered earlier – to submit their qualifications.
“The Hydrom auction system opens (on June 22) for registrations,” he said. “And while most companies have already registered or qualified, we are still keeping the system open for about two – two and half a months for the qualification process. (This is for the benefit of) the consortiums that may want to change partners, or have new partners that may want to come in. The Request for Proposals (RfP) will be launched around September, and we are promising to close this round latest by the end of Q1 next year.” Green hydrogen output from the three new blocks on offer, the Minister said, will further lift Oman’s aggregate output to well above the targeted 1 million tonnes per annum by 2030, said Al Aufi.
“In totality, between what we signed earlier and the projects that we are signing today, we are well on our way to produce the promised 1 million tonnes of hydrogen by 2030. And that puts us on very solid grounds. But the auctions that we will be launching today and, hopefully the projects we will be signing early next year, will put us in an even stronger position to deliver against that promise,” he added.
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