Petronas Seeking Partners to Develop Blue and Green Hydrogen

February 2021

Malaysia’s state-owned oil cooperation Petronas is seeking partners and customers to develop blue and green hydrogen by leveraging on its existing relationships selling LNG in Japan and South Korea. It is currently targeting to expand green (no carbon emissions) and blue (low carbon) hydrogen sector through carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) solutions.
The Head of Petronas’ hydrogen unit Adlan Ahmad said that the company had launched its hydrogen business unit in October 2020, following the impact of the OPEC oil crisis and COVID-19 pandemic as well as demands on carbon-free LNG and zero-carbon hydrogen. Petronas experienced its first quarterly loss in five years due to impairment charges as the company readjusted its oil price forecast last year.
Petronas also joined the global net-zero carbon emissions pledge by 2050. It already creates non-low-carbon grey hydrogen or hydrogen produced through a natural gas steam reforming method. Petronas is considering using CCUS with steam reforming to turn grey hydrogen into lower carbon blue hydrogen. It aims to manufacture zero-emission hydrogen fuel made from commercial, industrial, and carbon-engineered products in line with its current LNG business.
Plus, as the world’s fourth-largest exporter of cryogenic LNG, the company is looking at green hydrogen derived from renewable electricity such as solar, biomass, and other technologies. It has established several partnerships for the development of hydrogen:

  • Petronas worked with Sarawak state-owned utility Sarawak Energy to evaluate a large-scale green hydrogen production plant to generate the gas using Sarawak’s renewable hydropower. It will run a total of 3.452 GW of generation capacity through its hydroelectric power fleet.
  • It has signed an agreement with JOGMEC and JX Nippon to study the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology for the development of high-carbon-dioxide gas fields in Malaysia.
  •  In February 2021, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Japan’s largest power generation company JERA Co Inc which will see both companies collaborating on a wide range of low-carbon energy projects including Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), ammonia and hydrogen.

(Sources: IHS Markit; Petronas)

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