Saudi Arabia plans to use its $110 billion Jafurah unconventional gas development as a flagship project for producing blue hydrogen, underpinning state-owned Saudi Aramco’s plans to become a low carbon producer, on a huge scale.
Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman said during the Saudi Green Initiative Forum in Riyadh on Sunday that the nation has “a terrific gas base in Jafurah” and plans to use a large portion of that gas to generate blue hydrogen, Bloomberg reported.
Prince Abdulaziz claimed that Saudi Arabia is one of the “biggest adventurers when it comes to blue hydrogen”, pointing to plans to produce and export about 4 million tonnes of hydrogen by 2030.
However, responding to an Upstream query, Saudi Aramco declined to comment on its Hydrogen production plans from the Jafurah project.
Net-zero ambitions
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has promised a “circular economy” approach to reach the kingdom’s net-zero target by 2060, consistent with wider development and diversification plans for the Saudi economy.
The Saudi de facto ruler said the first package of measures launched to help develop the green economy would involve more than 700 billion riyals ($187 billion) worth of investments, in line with the nation’s declared 2030 Vision.
Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz described the nation’s goal as “to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2060, taking into account that this will not have an adverse financial or economic impact on oil exports.”
He said Saudi Arabia is making significant efforts to scale up the “share of gas and renewable energy in its own energy mix to 50% for each of them by 2030.”
$110 billion development
The Saudi government last year approved the giant Jafurah development, with overall investments set to reach $110 billion.
In its initial phase, the gas terminal is expected to process up to 1.1 billion cubic feet per day of unconventional raw gas from nearby areas, producing sales gas, ethane, natural gas liquids and condensate.