ADNOC joins ExxonMobil in soon-to-be world’s largest hydrogen project in Texas

(Bloomberg) – Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) agreed to take a 35% stake in Exxon Mobil Corp.’s proposed hydrogen project in Baytown, Texas, which is likely to be the world’s biggest once built.

The backing from the United Arab Emirates’s national oil company is “another proof point of the overall momentum” behind the project, Dan Ammann, president of Exxon’s low-carbon division, said in an interview.

Exxon sees the plant starting up around 2029, about a year later than originally planned in part due to a disagreement with the Biden administration over whether the facility qualifies for tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. 

“We’ve been quite clear with the administration and the relevant government entities on our view on that,” Ammann said. “We’re obviously waiting to see the final resolution of that process.”

Hydrogen is one of the key pillars of Exxon’s and other oil majors’ low-carbon strategy. The clean-burning fuel can utilize existing infrastructure like refineries and pipelines to help decarbonize heavy industry and create ammonia that can be used for fertilizer or shipped as fuel.

ADNOC is the third major industrial partner to join Exxon’s project, which would produce 1 Bcf of hydrogen per day and 1 million tons of ammonia a year. JERA Co., Japan’s biggest power, provider signed a non-binding agreement in March to buy half of the ammonia and in June Air Liquide SA said it could use its pipelines.

The project will provide hydrogen for the refinery and local users and ammonia for export, said Michele Fiorentino, ADNOC’s executive vice president for low-carbon solutions and business development.

“We’re really looking at building a portfolio of blue hydrogen supply capabilities,” Fiorentino said in an interview. “We’re developing production capacity in what we estimate being the most cost competitive regions to do so.” Those are Adnoc’s home in the Persian Gulf and in the US, he said.

Second deal. This would be ADNOC’s second acquisition in the U.S. after the UAE oil giant in May agreed to buy a stake in NextDecade Corp.’s liquefied natural gas export project in Texas.

The UAE, first among major Gulf oil producers to declare a 2050 net zero target, is looking to technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture to help cut emissions even as it looks for ways to keep selling hydrocarbons to new industries.

ADNOC and Exxon didn’t disclose the value of the proposed transaction, which Fiorentino described as “very material.” The project is among the lower-cost blue hydrogen proposals, he added.

The main sticking point for the Texas facility remains the government’s 45V tax credit. Under the current guidelines, incentives are earmarked for projects that produce so-called green hydrogen by using water and renewable energy.

Exxon’s plant will produce blue hydrogen from natural gas. Still, executives believe it should qualify for the tax credits because an accompanying carbon capture project would remove 98% of those emissions.

“We think that the policy and the incentives in place to support the creation of these new value chains should be technology agnostic,” Ammann said. “They should be focused on which projects can deliver what levels of carbon intensity regardless of the means by which they get there.”