NextChem acquires Ballestra Group

Norwegian oil and gas major Equinor says that it is no longer pursuing its planned H2M Eemshaven blue hydrogen project in the Netherlands, citing policy uncertainty and insufficient funding. The project was a joint venture between Equinor and Linde, and would have produced hydrogen from natural gas piped from Norway, with a capacity of 210,000 t/a of hydrogen beginning in 2029. Around 95% of the carbon dioxide produced would then be piped back to offshore storage sites near the Norwegian coast. Equinor had received a grant of €162 million for the project from the European Innovation Fund last summer. However, uncertainties over whether the project would receive carbon credits under the EU’s RED III directive, and a lack of local hydrogen infrastructure at Eemshaven meant that the project was unable to secure offtake agreements.

Avalon Renovables says that it has begun the administrative process to obtain environmental permits for the company’s planned Arquillo green hydrogen plant at Jerez de la Frontera. The plant is one of eight green hydrogen plans planned as part of the Bays of Algeciras and Cádiz Project (PBAC), with pipeline tie-ins to the future green ammonia plant in Campo de Gibraltar. The plant will include a 47 MW solar voltaic power plant called Arquillo, feeding 35 MW of electrolysis capacity, with an estimated output of 4,900 t/a of hydrogen.

Hy2Gen has been forced to end plans for a green ammonia plant in Norway, following the withdrawal of an electricity supply agreement by the main energy provider. Iverson eFuels, co-owned by Hy2Gen and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, had been planning to build a 200,000 t/a green ammonia plant at Birkeland in Sauda, using 240 MW of electrolysis capacity. However, the plant’s operational schedule has been pushed back from an original launch date of 2027 to 2031, prompting Norwegian electrical grid operator Statnett to withdraw the 270 MW of previously allocated grid capacity at the end of December, saying that it could only offer the extra capacity once upgrades to the grid had been completed in the period 2033-35. Following several weeks of discussions, Iverson eFuels said in a statement that: “such an unresolved situation related to the completion of new network capacity is not compatible with further development of the project. On this basis, Iverson has decided to terminate the project concerning green ammonia production in Sauda. The company regrets the decision, thanks its partners, and will now consider the possibility of establishing a data centre to create new activity in Sauda.”

Repsol says that it is planning a 100MW green hydrogen plant to supply its Petronor refinery near Bilbao. From 2029, the plant will supply the refinery with 15,000 t/a of green hydrogen. Repsol says that the installation could prevent up to 167,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year. The €292m ($346m) project has already secured €160m ($190m) in NextGenerationEU funds from the Spanish Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, after being recognised as a Project of Common European Interest by the European Commission.

ETFuels has been awarded €118.6m ($139.8m) in tax credits over 19 years under Business Finland’s Clean Transition program to develop a green hydrogen-based methanol project in Lapland. The credits will go towards the company’s Ranua facility, which is designed to produce 110,000 t/a of green methanol. According to ETFuels, the project, which is currently in early engineering stages, will use 300MW of renewable wind energy alongside battery storage facilities. The Ranua project is being developed in collaboration with Finnish energy firm Neova.