Hydrogen Oman (Hydrom), an Energy Development Oman  subsidiary, has signed project development and usufruct agreements with international consortiums to develop two green hydrogen projects in Al Wusta governorate.

The two agreements represent a total investment value of $10 billion, the state-owned Oman News Agency (ONA) reported on Wednesday.

The total estimated production of the two projects will be 250,000 metric tonnes of green hydrogen, equivalent to 6.5 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity, the report said.

The signing was broadcast live on Hydrom's Youtube channel on Wednesday. Salim Al Aufi, Oman's Minister of Energy and Minerals, addressed the event and shared details of the two agreements.

The first agreement was signed with the POSCO-ENGIE (MESCAT Middle East DMCC) consortium. The project will have a production capacity of about 200,000-220,000 tonnes per annum of green hydrogen (from 5.2 GW of renewable energy), which would be turned into ammonia for export. The investment has been estimated at $7-$8 billion.

Other consortium partners include Samsung Engineering, Thai national petroleum company PTTEP (FutureTech Energy Ventures), and two Korean utilities - Korea East-West Power Co. (EWP) and Korea Southern Power Co. (KOSPO).

The second agreement was signed with the Hyport Duqm consortium, comprising of Belgium-based international contractor and developer DEME and Oman-based energy company OQ. The first phase of the project aims to produce about 50,000 tonnes per year of green hydrogen and associated ammonia (from 3 to 3.5 GW of renewable energy) for export. The first phase would be located mainly outside the Duqm freezone but the second phase is planned to be located completely in the Duqm freezone.

The two agreements mark the closeout of the second part of the first round.

In early June, Hydrom signed three agreements to grant the first green hydrogen blocks as part of the first round of auctions with total investments projected to exceed $20 billion.

(Writing by Senthil Palanisamy; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)