Muscat – Hydrom, the sultanate’s green hydrogen orchestrator, announced signing two new green hydrogen projects in Dhofar worth RO4.2bn (US$11bn) on Monday. The signings follow the successful completion of Hydrom’s second round of auctions taking the total hydrogen production in Oman to 1.38mn tonnes per annum (mtpa) by 2030. 

The first agreement was signed with a consortium consisting of Electricité de France SA and its subsidiary EDF Renewables (EDF Group), Electric Power Development Co Ltd (J-POWER) and YamnaCo Ltd (Yamna).

The second agreement was signed with Actis, a leading global investor in sustainable infrastructure, and Fortescue, a global integrated green energy, metals and technology company.

Presiding over the signings, H E Salim Nasser al Aufi, Minister of Energy and Minerals and Chairman of Hydrom, said, “Oman is strategically located between two key green hydrogen demand centres in Europe and Asia. This, in addition, to our tier-1 infrastructure and logistics capabilities have enabled us to leverage our first mover advantage in the global hydrogen industry.”

He highlighted the fact that availability of renewable natural resources in Oman coupled with the country’s favourable geopolitical positioning, investor-friendly policies and progressive energy transition strategies make it one of the most suitable countries for green hydrogen production. As a result, Hydrom’s second round of auctions attracted global interest with over 200 companies keen for a chance to bid for developing integrated green hydrogen projects in what is set to become one of the largest exporter countries of low carbon hydrogen by 2030.

The project with EDF Group, J-POWER and Yamna aims to produce approximately 178,000 tpa of green hydrogen by 2030, using approximately 4.5GW of wind and solar energy coupled with battery storage and an approximately 2.5GW state-of-art electrolyser. The produced hydrogen will be supplied to an ammonia plant to be built in Salalah Free Zone, which is set to produce 1mtpa of green ammonia.

The project with Actis and Fortescue will involve construction of up to 4.5GW of wind and solar energy resources that will power electrolysers with the potential to produce up to 200,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year. This will then be sold to local industrial offtakers as well as processed into derivatives (such as green ammonia) for export via Port of Salalah.

“The rapid pace at which Oman is advancing its green hydrogen sector is remarkable, moving from land identification to international auctions and signing agreements in just two years, and we are proud to be leading it,” said Abdulaziz Said al Shidhani, Managing Director of Hydrom.

“Today, we are marking yet another milestone in this journey by awarding two projects to our new partners. Together with the first wave of green hydrogen projects announced, Oman is taking a confident step forward towards achieving its ambitious goal to produce 1mn to 1.5mn mtpa of green hydrogen by 2030.”

The new hydrogen signings cover a 682km2 area of land in total where average wind speeds range from 6.8m/s to 8.3m/s, and 2410w/m2 of solar irradiance. Together with the six previously awarded projects in 2023, Hydrom is on target to achieve Oman’s 2030 production targets, further amplifying the sultanate’s potential as a key global producer of low carbon hydrogen.