bp takes FID on Castellón, to acquire key stake in Oman mega-project

In its quarterly earnings call last month, bp unveiled progress in a number of key renewable hydrogen and ammonia projects.

HyVal: industrial-scale hydrogen hub

To help decarbonise its existing refinery in Castellón, Spain, a bp and Iberdrola-led consortium will develop HyVal, a project featuring up to 2 GW of on-site electrolysers by 2030, with at least 200 MW installed by 2027. Although FID has been taken, deployment timelines are unclear at this stage. By the end of this year, bp plans to take FID on a similar (but smaller at 100 MW) project at its refinery in Lingen, Germany, which was awarded EU funds as part of the Hy2Infra scheme. bp is also participating in the MACH2 Hydrogen Hub, one of seven under development in association with the US Department of Energy. bp’s hydrogen production project pipeline currently sits at 2.5 million tons per year.

bp, OQ, DEME: ammonia in Oman

Also in the call, bp revealed that it will take an equity share and act as operator for the HYPORT Duqm project. bp will acquire a 49% stake, while project founders OQ and DEME will each retain a 25.5% stake, with the transaction to be completed later this year. bp has a similar equity stake in the Australian Renewable Energy Hub, another ammonia mega-project.

HYPORT Duqm is being developed on an area of 150 km² within the Duqm Special Economic Zone in southern Oman. The production of electrolytic hydrogen and subsequently ammonia will be powered by 1.3 GW of wind and solar energy in the first phase, expanding to more than 2.7 GW in the second phase. At the Port of Duqm, export infrastructure is planned to allow the ammonia to be transported to Asian and European markets. In June 2023, DEME and OQ signed a development agreement with Hydrom, Oman’s national hydrogen development body.