PTT Group, Thailand’s state-owned oil and gas company, has pledged to invest $7 billion in green hydrogen production in partnership with Saudi Arabia’s leading renewable energy company, ACWA Power.
The joint venture aims to power electric vehicles in the ASEAN region and is part of PTT’s efforts to achieve net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide by 2050. The investment represents one of several different approaches PTT is taking to reduce emissions while remaining profitable.
The plant will be built in Thailand and have a production capacity of 225,000 tons of hydrogen per year, equivalent to around 1.2 million tons of ammonia. The two companies, along with the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, signed a memorandum of understanding in November 2021 to proceed with the project. The investment pledge represents a significant step forward in realizing the plan.
PTT is also attempting to create supply ecosystems to boost demand for green hydrogen. Its subsidiary PTT Oil and Retail has partnered with Bangkok Industrial Gas, Toyota Daihatsu Engineering & Manufacturing, and Toyota Motors to set up hydrogen charging stations in Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor.
The $7 billion investment in green hydrogen production facilities will help restore diplomatic relations between Thailand and Saudi Arabia after their ties were chilled by the Blue Diamond Affair in 1989, which began with the theft of $20 million worth of jewels, including a 50-carat blue diamond, from a Saudi prince’s palace by a Thai gardener. The two countries achieved a diplomatic thaw in January 2022, when Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha made the first visit between the two countries by a government head in over three decades.
