Air Liquide Pumps Hydrogen to Aramco Unit in Shift from Oil

Business

January 29th, 6:18am

Riyadh - Asharq Al-Awsat

FILE PHOTO: The Air Liquide logos are displayed at the Alteo calcined alumina production plant in Gardanne, near Marseille, France, March 22, 2019. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier/File Photo

Air Liquide Arabia (ALAR) on Tuesday began pumping hydrogen through its $400 million pipeline network in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea city of Yanbu and will supply a Saudi Aramco refinery as the kingdom seeks to shift towards cleaner fuel. Pressure has mounted on the world’s biggest fossil fuel producers to reduce their carbon emissions as concern mounts among policy-makers, investors and the general public about their impact on global warming, Reuters reported. Many in industry are turning to hydrogen gas, which can be used to fuel vehicles and as a means to store green energy, as part of the solution, it said. The Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery (SAMREF), a joint venture between oil giant Saudi Aramco and a subsidiary of US oil major ExxonMobil, will be the first company to use the Yanbu hydrogen grid, Francois-Xavier Haulle, ALAR’s general manager, told Reuters by telephone. His company, a joint venture between France’s Air Liquide and Saudi Arabia’s TAQA, 45.7 percent owned by the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund (PIF), plans to provide hydrogen (H2) to three other clients in 2020, he said. “H2 is critical to a clean, secure and affordable energy future in the kingdom. It can decarbonize a range of sectors, including long-haul transport and chemicals,” Haulle said. Haulle said his company plans to add more capacity to its hydrogen grid in Saudi Arabia, located on both the Red Sea and the Gulf coasts, from the current 200,000 normal meter cubed per hour (Nm3/hr), a measure of gas flow based on standard atmospheric conditions, at each site. Meanwhile, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures has bought into blockchain-based trading platform Vakt with $5 million in new shares, Vakt said on Tuesday. Aramco Trading Co, a subsidiary of Aramco, will use the platform, it said. The VAKT platform specializes in post-trade processing. It has been live since the end of 2018 with a focus on the key North Sea crude oil grades used to set benchmark dated Brent. The founders included majors BP, Equinor and Shell, independent traders Gunvor, Koch Supply & Trading and Mercuria as well as banks ABN Amro, ING and Societe Generale.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2104631/air-liquide-pumps-hydrogen-aramco-unit-shift-oil