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UK-headquartered energy giant BP will acquire a 49% stake in Hyport Coordination Company (Hyport Duqm), one of Oman’s first green hydrogen development companies.

BP said in its first-half 2024 financial report that it signed an agreement on 13 June with Oman’s state-backed energy company OQ and Belgium’s Dredging, Environmental & Marine Engineering (Deme) to acquire “a 49% stake and operatorship in the Hyport green hydrogen project in Duqm, Oman”.

The stake purchase is subject to customary regulatory approvals.

It is unclear how the deal with the Deme-led consortium will affect BP’s two planned legacy hydrogen projects in Duqm and Dhohar, which were announced last year.   

Having reached the pre-front-end engineering and design (feed) stage, Hyport Duqm is at the most advanced stage of development compared with the rest of the planned multibillion-dollar integrated green hydrogen and ammonia production facility projects in Oman.

In September last year, it invited companies to bid for a contract to provide project management consultancy services for its planned green hydrogen project in Duqm.  

The scope of work includes design review and project management during the feed stage, as well as procurement technical support. 

In June last year, the consortium signed a second land reservation agreement for a green hydrogen and ammonia production plant with the Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (Opaz) in Duqm.

The project will include a solar and wind park with a total installed capacity of about 1.3GW, a dedicated, high-voltage green electricity transmission line, and a utility-scale electrolysis and ammonia conversion plant.

Hydrogen will be produced from desalinated water and converted into green ammonia, which will be stored and shipped from the Port of Duqm to target export markets.

This entails a green hydrogen and green ammonia production facility with a 500MW electrolysis capacity on a site of 793,000 square metres.

The project’s first phase aims to produce around 57,000 tonnes a year of green hydrogen by 2029.

The renewable energy farms will be located in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm’s (Sezad) renewable energy area, where a site of 150 square kilometres has been allocated.

Hyport signed its first land reservation agreement with Opaz in 2021 for the green hydrogen and ammonia production facility it plans to set up in Sezad.

The agreement preceded the project’s early engineering work and site data collection.

In July 2021, MEED reported that the joint venture had signed a cooperation agreement with German energy firm Uniper to provide engineering services and negotiate an exclusive offtake agreement for the green ammonia produced at the planned facility.

Related read: Awards buoy Oman’s green hydrogen strategy