Oman’s Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (OPAZ) on Monday signed a land reservation agreement with India’s ACME Group to set up a large green hydrogen and ammonia project in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm.

India’s leading clean energy platform ACME Solar Holdings earlier in March announced that it signed a memorandum of understanding with Oman Company for Development of Special Economic Zone at Duqm (Tatweer) to set up a green hydrogen and green ammonia facility in Duqm with a total investment of around US$2.5bn.

According to Indian media reports published in March, Tatweer and ACME had identified the land parcel in Duqm region to set up the project that will produce 2,200 metric tonnes of green ammonia per day.

The land reservation agreement on Monday was signed by H E Dr Ali bin Masoud al Sunaidy, chairman of OPAZ and ManojUpadhyay, chairperson of ACME Group and GursharanJassal, general manager – business developer of ACME.

Eng Yahiya bin Khamis al Zedjali, in-charge of managing operations of the Special Economic Zone at Duqm, said that ACME, under the agreement, will be conducting field studies of the project in the first phase that include installing anemometers to measure wind speed and weather station for the purpose of surveys and data collection.

ACME’s project will produce hydrogen and ammonia from renewable energy. Green hydrogen is produced through electrolysis from renewable energy which becomes the raw material to make green ammonia.

The singing of this agreement comes in the context of OPAZ’s plan to promote investment in clean energy field through the production of green hydrogen and ammonia from renewable energy. 

The Authority also plans to promote the use of green hydrogen in various fields such as transportation and manufacturing sectors along with other energy resources in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm.

Another OPAZ official, Jalal bin Abdul Karim al Lawati pointed out that the Authority is currently negotiating with several international companies who expressed their interest to establish green hydrogen and ammonia projects in Duqm, Salalah and Sohar.

He added that Duqm is the ideal location for attracting green hydrogen and ammonia projects considering the high solar irradiation, wind resources all year long, and easy export and import through the port.

Several international companies in the past few months have expressed their interest and announced plans to invest in green hydrogen and green ammonia projects in Oman’s special economic zones and free zones.

The Ministry of Energy and Minerals is establishing a national hydrogen alliance ‘Hy-Fly’ to place Oman on the global clean hydrogen map. This alliance – made up of 13 key public and private organisations – will promote green hydrogen through investments, technologies, policies and expertise across the whole hydrogen supply chain.

Recently, Hong Kong-based InterContinental Energy, Oman’s OQ and Kuwait-based clean energy investor EnerTech formed a consortium to set up a mega green fuels project in Oman. The capacity of this project will be increased up to 25 megawatt over many years. The huge project would make Oman a global leader in green hydrogen and green ammonia production.