SMART POLICY- Oman unveils ambitious green hydrogen strategy: Oman outlined a strategy to increase investment in green hydrogen to USD 140 bn by 2050 at the government’s Future of Green Energy conference yesterday. This includes investment in 300 mn solar panels, 10k wind turbines, and 5.2k electrolyzers, and hydrogen storage, transport, and desalination.

The plan is ambitious: Oman is targeting annual production of 1-1.25 mn metric tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030, rising to 3.25-3.75 mn metric tonnes by 2040, and 7.5-8.5 mn metric tonnes by 2050.

It calls for investment (and exports) across the value chain: Projects are “expected to develop the full green hydrogen value chain,” including renewable energy generation, green hydrogen production, derivatives conversion and offtake. Developers can choose to produce and export hydrogen, convert it to ammonia or methanol, or use it to power “hard-to-abate industries” like steel or fertilizer production as part of their projects, said Al Shidhani.

What’s being offered to investors? Projects will be able to run for up to 47 years, starting from the point of development and the awarding of land usage rights. During that time, investors will see land fee reductions of up to 100%. Investors will pay a land lease of USD 0.5 per sqm, along with base royalties of up to 5%.

The caveats: Gov’t-owned OQ Alternative Energy will have a 20% equity stake in all projects. Oman isn’t committing to buyingany electricity produced by these projects or any connection to the grid, Hydrom notes. Companies will have to pay a corporate tax.

A one-stop shop for hydrogen projects: As part of the plan, Oman announced its tender process for hydrogen projects yesterday. It launched state-owned Hydrogen Oman (Hydrom) to manage all operations — including structuring and awarding projects, allocating land, developing infrastructure, overseeing project execution and stakeholder coordination.

Oman’s energy and minerals ministry will regulate the sector, noted Abdulaziz Al Shidhani, director general of renewable energy and hydrogen.

Hydrom’s first tender is going to be “accelerated”: Requests for qualifications for Hydrom’s first tender will open on 6 November. Companies will have until January 2023 to submit their bids.

2023 will see six land blocks awarded to project developers: By the end of 1Q 2023, two blocks of land for project development will be awarded in Duqm, followed by an additional four blocks of land in Thumrait by the end of 4Q 2023.

REMEMBER- This is the latest policy move the sultanate has made this year to promote the development of its hydrogen industry. The country has been studying a hydrogen export terminal and repurposing its natgas infrastructure to transport hydrogen.

Not to mention its green hydrogen project pipeline: Oman has lined up a pipeline of projects worth around USD 48.9 bn — second only to Egypt in MENA, according to MEED’s project tracker. Most notably:

• Saudi’s ACWA Power and US-based Air Products teamed up with OQ on a “multi-bn USD” green hydrogen project in Oman’s Salalah Freezone.
• OQ is also working with Hong Kong’s InterContinental Energy and Kuwait’s EnerTech on a USD 30 bn facility which will be powered by 25 GW of wind and solar energy.
• India’s ACME and Norway’s Scatec are partnering on a green ammonia plant that will produce 1.2 mn tons of ammonia powered by 3.5 GW of renewable energy.