Muscat: A gigawatt-scale green hydrogen and green ammonia project planned at Duqm in southeast Oman will rank among the first such large-scale ventures of its kind internationally that will herald a new era in renewable hydrogen-based clean energy production to support the global energy transition.
HYPORT Duqm, a joint initiative of Belgian-based DEME Concessions and Oman’s OQ Alternative Energy, was among the first to sign agreements with Omani authorities aimed at establishing an export-oriented renewable hydrogen scheme in Duqm.
DEME Group, the parent company of DEME Concessions, has hailed HYPORT Duqm as a project of global significance. “HYPORT Duqm remains on track to be amongst the first in the world to produce green hydrogen and green ammonia,” commented Luc Bertrand, Chairman DEME Group, and Luc Vandenbulcke, CEO DEME Group, in a joint foreword in the newly published 2023 Annual Report of the Group.
The report details progress in the implementation of the venture following the signing of a Project Development Agreement with Hydrom, the orchestrator of Oman’s green hydrogen industry, last June.
“With this agreement in place, HYPORT Duqm can kick-off the next stage of project development in 2024, including more detailed engineering following an extensive pre-FEED campaign,” it noted.
HYPORT Duqm is being developed on an area of 150 km² within the Special Economic Zone at Duqm. The production of green hydrogen to green ammonia will be powered by both wind and solar energy, with a combined capacity of around 1.3 GW under Phase 1 and potentially more than 2.7 GW on completion of Phase 2. The first phase of the project, which is part of Oman’s ambitious green energy targets (Vision 2040), is set to produce approximately 330,000 tonnes of green ammonia.
The Project Development Agreement (PDA) signed with Hydrom grants DEME a 47-year licence to develop and operate the project. Significantly, given the timelines agreed by the two sides for its construction and operation, HYPORT Duqm is on track to become the first operational, large-scale green hydrogen project in Oman.
“Furthermore, the agreement locks in HYPORT Duqm’s concept design, whereby the renewable energy will be transmitted from the generation site via a high-voltage transmission line to its industrial site near the Port of Duqm, where the electricity will be used for electrolysis and follow-on ammonia production,” said DEME.
According to the Belgian marine engineering and infrastructure giant, HYPORT Duqm will benefit not only from the group’s vast experience in renewables and port development, but also its growing prowess in connecting global clusters – the culmination of a strategic decision taken in 2018 to build its green hydrogen development capability. This expertise can also be leveraged to enable the transportation of green molecules between supply and demand hubs, it said.
In line with this broader objective, DEME is also participating in the HYVE initiative – a consortium of leading European research centres and technology companies – to develop the next generation of electrolysers. DEME’s HYPORT Energy team has also been building a proprietary digital twin model for simulating the competitiveness of entire green hydrogen value chains.
HYPORT Duqm is among six green hydrogen projects that have signed firm agreements with Oman’s authorities to date with a goal to achieve an annual production capacity of around 1 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030.
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