In focus: Stimulating industry-transforming changes through new hydrogen technologies

New programs for the transformation of the offshore energy sector are here. Through these actions, the industry is dealing with the following questions: to provide energy that is secure, affordable and lower in carbon.

Example number one: Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), energy institutions, and companies have signed two agreements and five memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with their Saudi counterparts to widen clean hydrogen cooperation.

The agreements and MoUs were signed on October 22 on the occasion of the Korea-Saudi summit meeting in Riyadh.

In line with this initiative, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), POSCO Holdings, and Lotte Chem, among other Korean firms agreed on a letter of intent (LoI) for cooperation in a blue ammonia project valued at $15.5 billion in the Ras Al-Khair region with Saudi’s Aramco.

Number two: PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna and GE have signed an agreement for the development of a project aimed at testing the production of green hydrogen using a GE offshore wind turbine.

In the planned project, hydrogen would be produced in an electrolyzer using electricity generated from the latest GE wind turbine model intended for the offshore wind market.

The hydrogen production system developed as part of the project could be implemented in PGE’s future offshore wind projects, said the company.

HWCG, a consortium of deepwater operators in the Gulf of Mexico, and marine environmental consulting and survey company CSA Ocean Sciences have created a surface monitoring equipment program designed to assist offshore oil and gas operators with enhancing their environmental monitoring and preparedness capabilities.

The Surface Monitoring Equipment program is designed to profile and sample the ocean surface to a depth of 100 meters.

It provides offshore energy companies operating in the GOM with access to purpose-fit and rapidly deployable scientific monitoring equipment and specialized spill response services for use in responding to accidental discharges in the marine environment.

The program is said to meet new regulations pertaining to the use of surface dispersants, should their use be an appropriate response tactic during an oil spill.

Taiwanese container shipping major Evergreen has teamed up with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), the world’s largest fund manager within greenfield renewable energy, for collaboration on hydrogen-based marine fuels.

To this end, Evergreen and CIP, on behalf of its Energy Transition Fund, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which they will jointly explore the production and usage of carbon-neutral e-fuels.

The cooperation will have several aspects including the production of e-fuels in Taiwan based on offshore wind, but also the exploration of a broader supply of green fuels such as e-ammonia and e-methanol.

Allseas has won a contract to construct the subsea pipeline for the Porthos CO2 storage project, the first such project in the Netherlands.

The news comes shortly after the final investment decision (FID) was made for the project.

Allseas’ work includes installation, burial and commissioning of the 16-inch carbon capture and storage (CCS) pipeline connecting a compressor station on the Maasvlakte with the P18-A platform approximately 20 kilometers offshore.

Pipelay will be executed by the company’s dynamically positioned S-lay vessel Lorelay, with construction support from Oceanic.

Activities are expected to start in 2025.

Also, the European Parliament Committee on Industry (ITRE) has adopted a position on the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), further endorsing the emerging consensus on the vital role of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in achieving Europe’s climate targets.

The position adopted by ITRE is said to strengthen the breakthrough measures on CCS from the European Commission proposal.

ITRE has included four key measures for CCS deployment in Europe, including an EU CO2 storage target which preserves the EC’s proposal to have a target of 50Mt of CO2 in annual injection capacity by 2030, but go further by requiring targets for 2035, 2040, and 2050 and by promoting geographical spread of storage sites across the EU.