Madoqua-led coalition formalizes Portugal-Northern Europe green fuels corridor initiative

Renewable energy developer Madoqua and its industry partners have formalized plans to operationalize a green fuels corridor connecting Portugal with Northern Europe.

Building on Madoqua’s partnership with Port of Sines, Port of Rotterdam, and duisport revealed in early November 2024, a range of industry players signed an operational memorandum of understanding (MoU) on December 12 to further advance the green corridor initiative.

Signatories of the MoU include financial partners, terminal operators, R&D institutions, industrial corporates committed to decarbonization, green fuel producers, and alternative fuel off-takers.

Under the new agreement, the parties will combine their sustainability priorities and apply their collective expertise to advance the decarbonization of hard-to-abate industries and the shipping sector in Europe.

The signatories vowed to support the development of cross-border infrastructure and the promotion of green hydrogen derivatives and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies, with the goal of attaining European energy independence by securing low-cost renewable fuel supply from Portugal.

In Portugal, Madoqua is developing a large-scale green hydrogen derivatives project to produce green ammonia and e-methanol, as well as the Madoqua Green Fuels Terminal, a necessary infrastructure for this green corridor. The facility will store, handle, and bunker alternative fuels in the port of Sines, with open access and operated using renewable energy. 

As informed, the total investment envisaged for the overall terminal project is €500 million and this export infrastructure is a key part required to operationalize the green fuels corridor across the two phases planned for developing the export facility in Sines.

Marloes Ras, Chief Commercial Officer at Madoqua, said: “Energy transition is a journey, where partnerships are key to success. Our recent ports collaboration is designed to make this approach a reality. Developing new generation facilities focused on producing e-fuels is just one piece of the integrated green fuel corridor puzzle. A significant amount of existing port, bunkering services and transportation infrastructure must be either re-purposed, augmented or built to meet the upcoming demand for e-fuels from the shipping and end use industry.” 

In addition to Madoqua and Sines, Rotterdam, and Duisburg ports, this value chain collaboration gathers the following industry players: Secil, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), ING, MUFG, Tepsa, Chane, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), Cargill, Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), REN, Hyperion, Floene, Proton Ventures, KBR, ThyssenKrupp, Siemens, AES, NRW.Energy 4Climate, H2UB, AHK, BDO, and Horisont Energi.