MUSCAT: Following through on its pledge to allocate part of its green hydrogen production to hard-to-abate industrial investments — most notably green steel — in Oman, the Amnah Energy consortium, which is developing a gigawatt-scale hydrogen project in Al Duqm, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Meranti Green Steel, the promoter of a low-carbon iron project at Al Duqm, to collaborate on the supply of clean energy to the latter’s investment at the Special Economic Zone.
The pact marks a significant boost to Oman’s efforts to localise industries that will benefit from the expected availability of large volumes of green hydrogen in Al Duqm from around 2030.
The Amnah consortium, comprising Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), Blue Power Partners and Al Khadra (Hind Bahwan Group), has been awarded the 320 km² land block Z1-01 in Al Duqm to develop 200,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year, powered by around 4.5 GW of renewable energy. The concession was secured as part of Oman’s first public auction round for integrated hydrogen projects.
Singapore-based Meranti, which plans to develop a 2.5 million tonnes per annum Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) plant at Al Duqm, announced on Friday that the two parties will collaborate on a green hydrogen supply–offtake solution.
“Both parties share the objective of designing the most reliable and competitive solution and are strongly aligned on the vision for long-term partnership and decarbonisation of the steel industry”, Meranti noted in its announcement.
Andrew Fang, VP Projects & Sustainability at Meranti Green Steel, commented: “Our partnership with Amnah marks an important step in leveraging green hydrogen supply for the production of low-carbon HBI. By progressing both sides of the value chain, we aim to create the scale and certainty required to advance our phased decarbonisation strategy and support Oman’s growing green hydrogen ecosystem”.
Emily Sykes, Director, CIP Energy Transition Fund, added: “CIP and the Amnah project are committed to enabling Oman’s vision for large-scale green hydrogen production. The collaboration with Meranti is an important step towards building an integrated value chain that connects world-class renewable resources with industrial decarbonisation at scale. By supplying green hydrogen for low-carbon HBI and ultimately steel production, we aim to accelerate the global energy transition, create significant economic opportunities and employment; and demonstrate how Oman can become a cornerstone of sustainable industry for decades to come”.
The proposed offtake solution, Meranti explained, will align with Oman’s green hydrogen infrastructure framework, overseen by Hydrom (the orchestrator of the hydrogen sector), OQ Gas Networks (OQGN) and other national utilities.
By integrating green hydrogen production with committed, long-term onshore industrial offtake, the partnership between Meranti and Amnah Energy helps overcome the challenge of synchronising new hydrogen supply with emerging industrial demand. The collaboration also advances Meranti’s goal of producing cost-competitive, low-carbon HBI for global markets.
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