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Norway is seeking to "rapidly" firm up plans to export blue and
green hydrogen it produces to Germany, potentially via a pipeline
that would rival one being developed in Denmark.
The nations jointly agreed to conduct a
feasibility study at a 16 March meeting between Norwegian Prime
Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Norwegian Petroleum and Energy minister
Terje Aasland, and German Minister of Trade and Industry Jan
Christian Vestre.
Norway's proposal foresees the export of blue hydrogen
initially, either via pipeline or another mode of transportation
like ships. Lower-carbon green hydrogen made from renewable energy
will be used ultimately. "In order to realize the fastest possible
high-volume imports of hydrogen and ensure the rapid availability
thereof, we will also jointly plan the use of blue hydrogen for a
transition period," said the countries in the statement.
The announcement follows publication of a similar feasibility study by Denmark's network
operator Energinet last year.
The Danish study foresaw pipeline exports of hydrogen from
Esbjerg or Holstebro in Denmark to "industrial demand centers" in
Hamburg in Germany. That pipeline, however, would use green
hydrogen produced using Denmark's "abundance of renewable energy
sources, particularly offshore wind."
A separate Dutch-German hydrogen pipeline, the AquaDuctus
project, proposes a 10-km pipeline that would transport green
hydrogen to Germany from offshore wind farms.
Hydrogen plans could turn blue
Norway and Germany are targeting net-zero emissions by 2050 and
2045 respectively.
But Norwegian blue hydrogen imports could change this. Blue
hydrogen can be made from natural gas using emerging Carbon Capture
and Storage (CCS) technology.
The countries will not only join up to develop hydrogen and CCS
but also offshore wind and assorted other greening technologies,
for example, green shipping that might use hydrogen. They plan to
cooperate more on offshore electricity networks for wind power
through the 2016 North Seas Energy Cooperation framework.
Norway is home to the Longship CCS, a project to store and
capture industrial emissions which the Norwegian government is
aiming to complete by 2024.
As part of the latest deal, Norway and Germany will
"significantly expand" efforts to store CO2 under the North Sea
through their existing international partnership with the UK, the
North Sea Basin Task Force.
Norway will aim to ensure the environmental integrity of its
blue hydrogen exports, which would supply hydrogen as a product of
processed natural gas, by establishing the "highest possible
standards for CCS."Concerns linger over the ability of carbon
capture projects to fulfill their emissions reduction aims. Shell's
Quest CCS project in Canada was intended to reduce the emissions
from crude oil processing, but it emits more greenhouse gases than
it stores according to a January report by NGO Global
Witness.
Norway's oil and gas ambition
Norway's government said part of its aim in the deal was "to
supply both oil and gas and hydrogen to Europe." Norway is Europe's
top oil-producing nation after Russia.
The EU is scrambling to replace Russia as its main natural gas
supplier after making the announcement it will phase out Russian natural gas
imports by two-thirds this year and entirely by 2030. EU member
states have followed this with a tentative agreement to phase out
"oil and coal imports" as soon as possible, with the EC giving
states until the tentative date of 2027.
This year before the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Norway
and Germany had entered into a "long-term structured dialogue" to
achieve climate, green industrial job, and energy security goals,
but Russia's "bloody and illegal war" had piled on the pressure for
measures "now," according to a joint statement by the
countries.
"Over the coming months and years, it will be extremely
important to speed up the development of alternative energy sources
for Europe as substitutes for Russian gas and oil and to develop
the necessary infrastructure for this," the countries said.
Posted 18 March 2022 by Cristina Brooks, Senior Journalist, Climate and Sustainability
This article was published by S&P Global Commodity Insights and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.
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