A consortium of UK-headquartered investment firm Actis and Australian metals group Fortescue has won the rights to develop, build, own and operate a large green hydrogen project in Oman.

Hydrogen Oman (Hydrom) and the consortium signed the agreements on 29 April.

The site awarded to the team is part of Oman’s second round of land auctions for green hydrogen and ammonia projects.

A team led by France’s EDF won a concession agreement for the other land block.

Actis and Fortescue said their project is in the feasibility stage. It is expected to involve the construction of up to 4,500MW of wind and solar renewable energy resources, which will power electrolysers with the potential to produce up to 200,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year.

The team envisages selling the produced green hydrogen to local industrial offtakers and processing it into derivatives, such as green ammonia, for export via the existing port of Salalah.

“Oman is strategically located between two key green hydrogen demand centres in Europe and Asia,” Salim Bin Nasser Al Aufi, Oman’s energy and minerals minister and chairman of Hydrom, said.

“This, in addition to, our tier-1 infrastructure and logistics capabilities have enabled us to leverage our first mover advantage in the global hydrogen industry.”

Actis is a codeveloper in 21,000MW of renewable energy capacity globally, of which 16,000MW are operational. 

Fortescue has a global pipeline of green hydrogen projects, including three that have reached final investment decisions.