ACWA Power to explore supply chains into Europe

Partnership with Italian pipeline giant Snam

Click to learn more. Under the new agreement, ACWA Power and Snam will explore development of an ammonia import terminal in southern Italy, feeding a hydrogen transport corridor to central Europe. Source: Snam.

Saudi-based ACWA Power and Italian gas pipeline operator Snam have agreed to explore collaboration and joint investments to establish a supply chain of green hydrogen to Europe. The agreement also includes a plan to develop an ammonia import terminal in southern Italy, facilitating the delivery of hydrogen to the beginning of the “South H2 Corridor”: a 3,300km long hydrogen transport corridor through Italy, Austria and Germany. The ammonia would likely originate from ACWA’s flagship renewable ammonia project – NEOM in Saudi Arabia.

The announcement indicates that Snam aims to build “a pan-European, multi-molecule infrastructure” network, moving away from its traditional focus on oil and gas. As well as ammonia imports from Saudi Arabia, the South H2 Corridor includes a proposed cross-Mediterranean pipeline (via Sicily) to transport hydrogen directly from north Africa. As project partner in the corridor, Snam will be responsible for all operations in the “Italian H2 Backbone” section, beginning in Sicily.

We are excited to join forces with Snam to drive significant advancements in the green hydrogen sector. With power sector emissions already down 40% compared to 20 years ago, we now need to focus our collective efforts on new, low carbon molecules to decarbonise our sectors. Bringing our expertise together will help accelerate this process.

Marco Arcelli, Chief Executive Officer of ACWA Power, in his organisation’s official press release, 27 Jan 2025

The EU’s ambitious decarbonisation targets need decisive action across all manufacturing sectors, utilising all available technologies in a practical, efficient and accelerated manner. Hydrogen plays a key-role here, and we are glad to pursue development opportunities in this field also through agreements like the one we signed with ACWA Power: the development of the ammonia import terminal is synergic with that of the South H2 Corridor.

Stefano Venier, the Chief Executive Officer of Snam,in ACWA Power’s official press release, 27 Jan 2025

Ammonia imports from Saudi Arabia could serve two important functions here: i) once cracked, be the primary source of hydrogen fed into the pipeline, or ii) be stored, cracked and fed into the pipeline network on demand to buffer fluctuations in cross-Mediterranean pipeline flow. The second concept (cracking ammonia on demand to buffer hydrogen transport networks) is one being explored at the Port of Antwerp, Belgium as part of the HyBex project.