Germany, Egypt sign LNG and renewable hydrogen partnership

Germany and Egypt have signed memoranda of understanding to cooperate in the production of renewable hydrogen and bolster trade in liquefied natural gas, Germany's energy ministry said Nov. 3.

The agreements signed by Energy Minister Robert Habeck and Egypt's Tarek El Molla, Minister for Petroleum and Resources and Mohamed Shaker El-Markabi, Minister for Electricity and Renewables come just days before the start of the UN Climate Change Conference hosted by Egypt.

"With our energy partnership with set a clear signal before the [COP27] World Climate Conference, we support Egypt to speed up the change from fossil to climate friendly energy," Germany's Habeck said.

"In the short term, closer trading ties with Egyptian LNG help us to diversify [Germany's] energy imports further and become independent of Russian gas," the minister added without providing further details.

Gas ties

Egypt, which sits on the giant Zohr gas field in the Mediterranean, is developing its clean energy resources and has inked a number of agreements for green hydrogen development.

Gas-rich Egypt is also looking to renewables and plans to produce 43% of its power from renewables by 2035.

A flagship green hydrogen project at Ain Sokhna in Egypt's Suez Canal Economic Zone was first presented in April.

Last year, Siemens Energy and the state-owned Egyptian Electricity Holding Co. signed an MOU to develop a hydrogen-based industry with export potential, including a 100-200 MW pilot electrolyzer facility.

Siemens already helped Egypt develop 14 GW of gas-fired power generation capacity setting a new world record for execution of such a project in 2018 in just over two years.

Platts assessed the cost of renewable hydrogen in the Netherlands (PEM electrolysis and capex) at Eur18.57/kg, while blue ammonia FOB Middle East was last assessed at $1,025/mt on Nov. 3, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed.

Platts Hydrogen Price Wall shows the world's cheapest electrolysis-based hydrogen derives from Western Australia, the US and the Middle East.