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Arab countries are planning to make major investments in the green hydrogen sector with 122 projects announced to date, according to the head of the Arab League’s oil body.
Arab states including the UAE, Egypt and Kuwait are spearheading a regional drive to become among the world’s largest hydrogen exporters, taking advantage of their massive gas resources, said Jamal Al-Loughani, Secretary General of the Kuwaiti-based Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC).
“These projects will allow Arab countries to capture an important share of the green hydrogen market besides their already pioneering position in the oil and gas market,” he said in a weekend report.
“What I see is that some Arab countries are moving fast in the international green hydrogen industry map…until the end of September, the number of announced Arab hydrogen projects stood at 122…I am confident that once they are completed, these projects will turn Arab nations into a principal player in the clean energy market.”
According to the 11-nation OAPEC, the UAE is pushing ahead with plans to become one of the world’s top 10 green hydrogen producers by 2031.
In Algeria, the state-owned oil operator Sonatrach has signed agreements with three European firms to build a 3,300-km pipeline to transport green hydrogen to Europe, mainly Italy, Germany and Austria.
Tunisia has also signed for 8 hydrogen projects, including one with a Saudi company for the production of 600,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year, the report said, adding that it would produce 12 gigawatts (GW) of electricity to be partly exported to Europe.
In Kuwait, the government-owned Kuwait Oil Company announced in July that it has awarded the US-based KBR Company a consulting contract for the development of a master plan for the production of 17GW of renewables and 25GW of green hydrogen by 2050.
Egypt has also become of the world’s largest players in this field, according to the report, which noted that the Arab country this year signed deals for green hydrogen and ammonia with a total value of nearly $40 billion, increasing the total number of such projects in Egypt to 36.
Morocco has signed a deal for the storage of hydrogen while Jordan has so far finalised 12 MOUs for such projects, the report said.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
