German state-owned gas supplier aims to import 'giga-scale' amounts of low-carbon hydrogen from Equinor
SEFE signs letter of intent with Norwegian oil company, stating ‘clear ambition’ to accept 5TWh of H2 annually from 2029
Germany’s state-owned gas supplier SEFE (Securing Energy for Europe) has signed a letter of intent to buy “giga-scale” amounts of low-carbon hydrogen from Norwegian oil giant Equinor, starting in 2029.
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“The clear ambition is to supply low-carbon hydrogen to SEFE at industrial scale, starting from 5TWh per year from 2029 and ramping stepwise up to 40TWh per year from 2050 towards 2060,” said a statement issued by both companies.
The statement does not specify how the “low-carbon hydrogen” would be produced, but Equinor is developing both green and blue hydrogen projects, with the latter making use of its huge Norwegian gas reserves.
However, the two companies simultaneously announced a deal for Equinor to supply ten billion cubic metres of natural gas from the Norwegian continental shelf to SEFE annually from 2024 until at least 2034.
SEFE is the successor organisation to Gazprom Germania, a Germany-based midstream supplier of gas owned by Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom, that was taken over by the German federal government in November 2022 — a knock-on effect of Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine.
Equinor CEO Anders Opedal said he was pleased to sign the letter of intent “to explore opportunities to supply SEFE with low-carbon hydrogen at industrial scale for decades to come, enabling European industries and flexible gas power plants to accelerate decarbonisation”.
SEFE CEO Egbert Laege added: “SEFE and Equinor share ambitious goals to accelerate the development of the hydrogen economy. This includes joint business opportunities related to transport and storage of hydrogen for the future. SEFE Group's storage company Astora could be a key building block in this.”
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