Page 10 - EurOil Week 30

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Governments and
businesses in Europe
are looking at hydrogen
more seriously.

Snam has finished testing a hybrid hydro- FSU: Russia drafts hydrogen plan
gen-blend turbine designed by Baker Hughes. Russia has watched with keen interest as gov-
Its plan is to feed up to 7 bcm per year into the ernments and businesses in Europe, the main
Italian gas grid – enough to cover the gas needs market for its oil and gas, have drawn up plans
of 3mn families. to develop hydrogen as an energy source. It is
Snam and 10 other European grid oper- understood that the Russian energy ministry has
ators have also published a plan for devel- submitted a draft five-year plan to put Russia on
oping a 6,800-km hydrogen grid by 2030, the road to becoming a hydrogen exporter. It is
mainly consisting of repurposed gas pipe- hoped that a finalised national strategy will be
lines, reaching 23,000 km in size a decade ready by the end of the year.
later. This initiative would cost somewhere The key players in this drive will be Gazprom
in the region of €27-64bn ($31-73bn). But and Rosatom, the ministry expects. Gazprom
the operators estimate that hydrogen could wants to produce so-called turquoise hydrogen
be delivered across Europe efficiently, at a using methane pyrolysis, where gas is passed
levelised transport cost of only €0.09-0.17 per through molten metal, producing solid carbon
kg per 1,000 km. as a useful by-product. So far, pyrolysis is only
Over in the Netherlands, Norwegian engi- used on a very small scale globally.
neering consultancy DNV GL has teamed up Rosatom, on the other hand, wants to pro-
with Dutch glass maker Celsian to create a Dutch duce yellow hydrogen, generated from water
consortium to develop a burner technology ena- using electrolysis, but with the process powered
bling energy-intensive industries to move from with nuclear rather than renewable energy.
gas to hydrogen. Whether Russia can establish itself as a com-
These announcements follow the European mercial hydrogen exporter in time to capture
Commission’s long-awaited unveiling of a new a part of the European market in unclear. The
EU hydrogen strategy, calling for 10mn tonnes EU’s strategy heavily prioritises green hydrogen
per year (tpy) of the fuel to be produced using produced from renewables, and sees other types
electrolysis by 2030. as only a short-term solution. Embracing hydro-
Over in Norway, state-owned Equinor has gen will also be a costly undertaking for Russia,
posted its fourth quarterly loss in a row, on which is short of revenues following the collapse
impairments and upstream losses as a result of in commodity prices and the launch of an eco-
low prices and production cuts. nomic support package.
The company booked a net loss of $251mn Meanwhile, Rosneft has reported the
in the second quarter, versus a $1.48bn gain a discovery of a new oilfield at its Vostok Oil
year earlier. Its pre-tax earnings also collapsed to project in the Russian Arctic, estimated to
$354mn, from $3.15bn a year before. All three of be 146mn barrels in size. Rosneft claims that
its upstream units – E&P Norway, E&P Interna- its Vostok Oil project could yield as much as
tional and E&P USA, suffered adjusted earnings 2.3mn bpd of oil by 2030, but low prices and
losses. But a strong trading performance pro- the initiative’s considerable cost raise con-
vided some relief for the company. cerns about feasibility.
Lastly, Gazprom Neft has launched a new
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping $1.4bn complex at its refinery in Moscow. The
Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for Euro+ facility will boost the quality and quantity
NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor. of light fuels such as gasoline and diesel, partly

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