The Middle East is positioning itself as a major low carbon energy provider. Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE and Egypt have taken big steps towards the hydrogen economy.
The King
Abdullah Petroleum and Research Centre in Saudi Arabia predicts that in the long
term the cost of green hydrogen production in Saudi Arabia could fall to US$1/kg
assuming that the capital cost of electrolysers drop to US$400/KW and renewable
energy costs fall below US$10/MWh.

By 2030, the Middle East is expected to have around 20% of total global hydrogen infrastructure
investment. Global hydrogen demand is expected to reach 182Mtpa by 2050. Recently,
Siemens identified 46 viable green hydrogen projects in Middle East with total value
of US$92bn. Scatec Green Ammonia (US$5bn), ReNew Power green hydrogen (US$7.1bn),
Green energy Oman (US30bn), HYPORT Duqm (US$2bn), Helios (US$3.35bn), ACWA
Power (US$5bn), Engie and Masdar Al Ruwais (US$5bn), Ain Sokhna ammonia project
(US$5bn), AMEA Power green ammonia (US$3bn).
MEED, a UAE-based company, estimates about 50+ projects in Middle East adds up to US$150bn
in investments. Saudi Arabia and UAE have projects worth US$10.5bn and $10.28bn
respectively, Oman has projects worth US$48.9bn. Egypt is leading with
investment of around US$64bn. Egypt has good access to renewables such as wind
and solar, making it suitable hub to develop green hydrogen projects.

UAE
The UAE
announced its target to achieve Net Zero emission by 2050 making it among the
first Middle Eastern countries. UAE has committed to US$163bn of renewables
investment to achieve this.
UAE-based
Petrolyn Chemie will build a US$1bn green hydrogen and ammonia plant in the
United Arab Emirates. The plant will have green ammonia capacity of 0.2Mtpa.
The companies signed an agreement on Friday 3rd June 2022.
This is a joint
venture with Korean companies, Korea Electric Power Corporation, Samsung
C&T Corporation and Korea Western Power. The plant will be built in two
phases. The first phase will produce 0.035Mtpa of green ammonia. No timeframe
for each phase was detailed in the announcement. The project will be in the
Khalifa Industrial Zone near Abu Dhabi.
In
September 2022, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced that its first
shipment of low-carbon ammonia is underway. The cargo will travel from the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Hamburg, Germany. The low-carbon ammonia was
produced at ADNOC’s Fertil plant in Abu Dhabi’s Ruwais industrial complex.
The
low-carbon ammonia will supply Aurubis, the largest copper producer in Europe
and largest copper recycler worldwide. Aurubis will use the ammonia as a
feedstock in its plant and energy source.
ADNOC has
also announced to develop a facility to produce blue ammonia in Ruwais, Abu
Dhabi. The capacity will be 1Mtpa blue ammonia. Production will start from
2025.
ADNOC has also
signed an agreement to explore hydrogen supply to Japan and Korea. ADNOC is a
major producer of hydrogen in UAE with over 300ktpa hydrogen.
Oman
Oman is
rapidly building a hydrogen focussed economy. The country plans to achieve 30GW
clean hydrogen capacity by 2040. The government has announced several gigawatt-scale
hydrogen projects. Oman plans over US$45bn worth of green hydrogen and green
ammonia projects.
Intercontinental
energy in partnership with Oman Oil Company and EnerTech is developing Green
Energy Oman, a 25GW project to produce 1.8Mtpa green hydrogen and up to 10Mtpa
green ammonia. Production is expected to start from 2028.
ACME, an
Indian renewable energy developer plans to develop green ammonia project at
Oman’s Port of Duqm. The electrolyser will be powered by 3GW of solar and 500MW
of wind.
Hyport
Duqm, a partnership of OQ and DEME is set to produce 1Mtpa green hydrogen at
full scale of operation. Renewable energy sources of 3GW will power 1.5GW
electrolyser. The final investment decision will be made by 2023 and the first
phase of the production will start from 2026.
Egypt
The Suez
Canal is getting attention as a hub of renewable hydrogen and renewable ammonia-based
projects.
ReNew
Power, an Indian company and Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE) signed an
agreement to develop US$8bn renewable ammonia plant in Ain Sokhna, Egypt. The
facility will start first phase of production of 100ktpa renewable ammonia by
2025.
Total Eren
signed MOU with SCZONE to develop a renewable ammonia project in Ain Sokhna,
Egypt. The first phase will produce 300ktpa renewable ammonia.
Masdar
signed MOU with SCZONE to develop a plant with 4GW electrolyser to produce
2.3Mtpa renewable hydrogen. The first stage will produce 100ktpa renewable
bunker methanol by 2026.
African
power company Globeleq has signed a MOU with the Egyptian government for the
development of a large-scale green hydrogen project. Globeleq will develop,
finance, build, and operate the project.
The green
hydrogen project will be developed in three phases. In total, the project will
use 9GW of solar PV and wind capacity to power 3.6GW of electrolysers. In the
first phase, a 100MW electrolyser will produce green ammonia and other green
fuels.
Saudi
Arabian company Alfanar has signed a MOU to develop US$3.5bn green hydrogen
project in Ain Sokhna, Egypt. The facility will produce 500ktpa green ammonia
from 100ktpa of green hydrogen.
Fortescue
Future Industries (FFI) is in talks with the Egyptian government over the
development of a 9.2GW wind and solar facility that will power green hydrogen
production. The information about investment and production capacity has not
been released.
FFI Founder
Dr Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in
September. FFI previously signed a MOU with the Egyptian government to study
green hydrogen production possibilities.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi
Arabia has launched Vision 2030. Saudi Arabia aims to reduce carbon emission by
more than 278Mtpa by 2030. Currently, Saudi Arabia has set a clean hydrogen
production target of 2.9Mtpa by 2030. The large market share is in blue
hydrogen, particularly in the form of blue ammonia.
The NEOM
Green Hydrogen Company, a joint venture with ACWA Power, NEOM and Air Products,
is developing green hydrogen project in Saudi Arabia. The estimated cost is
US$5bn. 4GW of solar and wind will power the electrolyser to produce 650tpd of green
hydrogen. The project is scheduled to produce 1.2Mtpa green ammonia in 2025.