Indian oil companies assigned 30,000 tonnes of green hydrogen production | Refining

India has allocated 30,000 tonnes per year of green hydrogen production capacity across four state-owned oil companies, in a bid to clean up the country’s refining base.

Under the National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM), the entities will build, own, and operate green hydrogen plants to replace portions of grey hydrogen already used in refining.

Indian Oil Corporation’s Panipat refinery and Numaligah Refineries’ Numaligarh facility will both be required to produce 10,000 tonnes of hydrogen annually, while Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum’s facilities in Bina and Vizag must each produce 5,000 tonnes per year.

Funded by the NGHM’s Mode 2B scheme, part of the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) programme, each will build, own, and operate new hydrogen production facilities.

While specific subsidy rates have not been announced, the funding will come in the form of per-kilogramme production incentives.

It comes as India ramps up activity in hydrogen and derivatives to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

While domestic industries, particularly steel and fertilisers, have already engaged with hydrogen-centred decarbonisation measures, refineries have been slower to act.

The country launched a tender for green steel and iron production in June 2024, and more recently, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) awarded 13 contracts covering 724,000 tonnes of green ammonia for fertiliser plants under 10-year offtake agreements.

Last September, the India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A) told H2 View that refineries would be critical to India’s hydrogen goals, estimating that if 10% of the country’s grey refinery-fed hydrogen is replaced with green, it could meet 30% of its NGHM 2030 targets.

Recently, India’s NTPC Green Energy moved forward with plans for a 7GW green hydrogen-based chemicals hub in Pudimadaka, Andhra Pradesh, tendering for a 10 million litre per day water demineralisation plant to supply it.