17-04-2025
Major firms join Oman-Europe Liquid H2 Corridor project
MUSCAT: Leading European businesses, notably Tata Steel Nederland, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA), Port of Duisburg, and Hynetwork are among a conglomerate of companies that are now part of a historic bid to establish the world's first Liquid Hydrogen Corridor linking Oman and Europe.
A Joint Development Agreement (JDA) signed earlier this week in conjunction with the state visit of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik to The Netherlands, saw a total of 11 organisations committing to working collaboratively to enable the transportation of Omani green hydrogen to markets in the Europe.
Representing Oman in the consortium are Hydrom (Oman's national green hydrogen orchestrator), OQ (Oman's global integrated energy group), and Port of Duqm Company. Together with their European partners, they will be leveraging their respective strengths in rolling out a supply chain encompassing the liquefaction, transport, storage, and distribution of liquid hydrogen.
Tata Steel Nederland, one of Europe's largest steel producers, has signed up to secure its green hydrogen requirements when it begins a transition to low-carbon steel production starting by 2030.
Hans van den Berg - CEO Tata Steel Nederland, commented: "In our role as a large potential buyer, we can contribute to the development of a sustainable economy based on green hydrogen in our region. In this way, we not only make our own production process more sustainable, but we also help to build a new ecosystem together with other companies."
Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA), a leading operator of seaport terminals and transport hubs in Europe, says it will leverage the Europe-wide intermodal network of its rail subsidiary Metrans to ensure the efficient onward distribution of hydrogen.
"For HHLA, hydrogen is an important element of the journey towards climate neutrality by 2040," emphasised Annette Walter, Chief Financial Officer of HHLA. "Liquid hydrogen plays a key role here, as it can be transported independently of pipelines - which is ideal for mobility and logistics, the aviation industry, and small and medium-sized industrial and chemical companies. With our European logistics network, we want to efficiently transport hydrogen from the import ports to end consumers in Germany and Europe."
Also set to play a key role is Hynetwork, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dutch gas transportation company Gasunie. Hynetwork is currently building a 1,200km Dutch hydrogen network of hydrogen pipelines to connect industrial sites to each other, to foreign countries and to import and storage sites.
'In addition to the construction of the national hydrogen network, we are actively working on the infrastructure for the large-scale transport and storage of hydrogen, so that the hydrogen can be transported from the Netherlands to the industrial regions in the hinterland,' said Hynetwork in a post.
Linking the proposed Liquid Corridor to Germany is the Port of Duisburg (Duisport), also a signatory to the landmark JDA. 'As the largest inland port in the world, Duisport plays an important role in the energy transition: this agreement reaffirms the port's position as a central hub for the industrial supply of green hydrogen,' the Port authority said in a post.
Alexander Garbar, Head of Corporate Development at Duisport, stated: "We are bringing green hydrogen to where it is needed – to the industrial centres of NRW. Together with Hydrom, ECOLOG, the Port of Amsterdam and other partners, we are creating the infrastructure for a reliable, international supply chain.'
Other signatories of the JDA are Port of Amsterdam, ECOLOG, EnBW and Advanced Methanol Amsterdam. All 11 partners are targeting the flow of Omani liquid green hydrogen to Europe by 2030.
