MUSCAT, SEPT 28
Oman’s efforts to build a commercially viable green hydrogen industry are set to receive fresh impetus from a specialised workshop convened early next month with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), as the emerging sector confronts cost, technology and offtake challenges globally.
The closed virtual workshop set for October 6, 2026, has been organised by IRENA in collaboration with Oman’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals. It will examine global developments in green hydrogen and derivative commodities, including ammonia, methanol and synthetic jet fuel, with a particular focus on technology, markets, innovation and policy priorities.
Significantly, the workshop will also explore ways of improving the competitiveness of green hydrogen solutions in target sectors – an issue of growing importance as developers worldwide seek to convert ambitious project pipelines into bankable investments and firm offtake agreements.
IRENA acknowledges that green hydrogen and its derivatives are not yet cost-competitive with alternative solutions in most applications. Its earlier analysis estimated green hydrogen production costs at around $3-$6/kg even at favourable locations, compared with roughly $1-$2/kg for conventional grey hydrogen.
The workshop therefore comes at an important juncture for Oman, whose combination of strong solar and wind resources, large tracts of development land and established industrial and maritime infrastructure has underpinned ambitions to become a major producer of renewable hydrogen.
While direct electrification is expected to carry much of the global decarbonisation burden, hydrogen is increasingly being positioned for harder-to-electrify applications, notably heavy industry, shipping, aviation and long-duration energy storage. The challenge has shifted increasingly towards lowering production costs, securing buyers and establishing commercially sustainable value chains.
For Oman, this evolving market environment has also prompted a sharper focus on competitiveness, domestic utilisation and industrial integration.
Hydrogen Oman (Hydrom), the orchestrator of the national green hydrogen programme, has said seven projects are progressing towards a combined production capacity of around one million tonnes of renewable hydrogen annually by 2030, while two previously awarded developments were concluded by mutual agreement following reassessments prompted by changing global market conditions.
At the same time, Hydrom is increasingly positioning hydrogen as part of a wider industrial ecosystem encompassing renewable power, battery storage, green ammonia, low-carbon fuels, iron and steel and other downstream industries, thereby creating potential domestic demand alongside exports.
The strategy is already beginning to produce tangible projects. ACME’s Duqm development has entered implementation, with its initial phase targeting 100,000 tonnes per year of green ammonia, while subsequent phases envisage a significant scale-up in hydrogen and ammonia production.
