DMEA: UAE’s H2 plant and Jordan’s imports

This week’s DMEA looks at the launch of the Middle East’s first green hydrogen facility and Jordan’s tender for Iraqi crude shipments.

Emirati Energy and Infrastructure Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei announced that the UAE will this week commission its first green hydrogen plant to produce clean transportation fuels for use during Dubai Expo 2020 due to take place later this year.

The minister told a press conference at the launch of World Utilities Congress in Abu Dhabi: “This week, in Dubai, we are commissioning the first green hydrogen plant that will be supplying certain buses and cars that will be used during the Expo.” Expo 2020 was delayed until this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hydrogen project is being developed between Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Germany’s Siemens Energy utilising electrolysis technology at DEWA’s R&D Centre at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

Al Mazrouei added that Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co. (Masdar) has begun an initiative to use solar PV to produce hydrogen for use in buses and passenger vehicles at the carbon-neutral Masdar City as well as in aviation fuel to be used by Etihad and Lufthansa.

Meanwhile, Jordan’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) launched a tender for the transport of 10,000 bpd of Iraqi crude by road from Kirkuk to Zarqa.

The MEMR, which is responsible for transporting crude from Iraq under the terms of a deal renewed by the two sides in January, has set the deadline for obtaining a copy of the bidding documents and submitting inquiries on 27 May, with the deadline for submitting bids falling in the third week of June.

The original 2019 agreement provided for Jordan to purchase oil at a $16 per barrel discount to Brent in order to cover the transport and deviation in specifications with Iraqi goods exported through the port of Aqaba, receiving preferential rates in return.