Oman’s strategic green hydrogen project Hyport Duqm has signed a cooperation agreement with Germany-based energy giant Uniper to offer engineering services and negotiate an exclusive offtake agreement of green ammonia.
The project shareholders DEME Concessions and OQ Alternative Energy stated that the arrival of Uniper will help demonstrate “a strong business case for the offtake” and allow them to “secure optimal financing for the project.”
This agreement marks another vital milestone for Hyport Duqm, after having secured its 150km² renewable generation site in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm, Oman earlier this year.
The site is being prepared for the installation of several meteorological masts to validate Duqm’s year-round good solar and wind conditions, which are essential for a successful green hydrogen to green ammonia project.
Niek den Hollander COO – Uniper
“We need to get hydrogen out of the laboratory and start using it in large-scale applications and marketable industrial solutions — we should turn it into a market and exploit its wide variety of uses. One way of achieving this is to import green ammonia and convert it into hydrogen, which is something we are looking at for Wilhelmshaven on Germany’s North Sea coast. Germany will be heavily dependent on imports if we want to use hydrogen to help us achieve our climate goals.”
“The co-operation agreement with Uniper marks a major milestone in the development of the Hyport Duqm project. This brings us a step closer to delivering a world scale green hydrogen facility in the SEZ at Duqm and showcases the true potential of Oman’s renewable capabilities as well as the critical role that the country can play as a net energy exporter,” said Mr. Salim Al Huthaili, CEO of OQ Alternative Energy.
In the first phase, the Hyport Duqm project will build a green hydrogen factory with a capacity of 250 to 500 megawatts in Duqm’s Special Economic Zone. The facility, which is expected to open in 2026, will meet the growing global need for green hydrogen and its derivatives.
Hyport Duqm will connect to the Port of Duqm’s brand-new export terminal, storage facilities, and liquid jetties, and will use the Port of Duqm as its gateway to provide cost-effective decarbonized molecules to users all over the world.
