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.