By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., which pumps almost all the oil and natural gas in the United Arab Emirates, is in talks with energy companies about them buying equity stakes in the hydrogen projects.
It also aims to sign long-term supply contracts before pushing ahead with the investments, they said.
The market for hydrogen is tiny today but could be worth as much as $700 billion annually by 2050, according to BloombergNEF.
Projects to export the fuel, which only emits water vapor when burned, which are likely to cost billions of dollars are ongoing.
But amid a global push to slash greenhouse-gas emissions, Persian Gulf nations such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia are looking to hydrogen to reduce their reliance on oil.
Hydrogen can become a major energy source in the next 20 years, Sultan Al Jaber, head of Adnoc and the UAE’s climate envoy, has said.
The company has signed agreements to explore sales of the fuel with Japan’s government and GS Energy of Korea.
State-owned oil firms in the Gulf want to turn their expertise in exporting liquid fuel into shipping hydrogen or ammonia to customers worldwide for electricity, transport and industrial use.
Saudi Aramco aims to have a “large share” of the market that it sees emerging from 2030 onwards.
Most of what Adnoc exports is likely to be blue hydrogen, created by converting natural gas and capturing the carbon dioxide by-product.
The hydrogen may be turned into ammonia to ship it more easily.
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