Companies Wintershall Dea and Nord-West Oelleitung (NWO) will partner on Wintershall Dea’s BlueHyNow initiative.
The two firms signed a memorandum of understanding this week and plan to perform a feasibility study by the end of the year to investigate the possibility of constructing a hydrogen production plant on the NWO site in Wilhelmshaven. Wintershall Dea, Europe’s largest independent gas and oil producer, is planning a facility for the manufacture of huge quantities of hydrogen from Norwegian natural gas, according to a statement from the firm.
The BlueHyNow project is being constructed as part of the EnergyHub in Wilhelmshaven. NWO possesses partially underused pipeline infrastructure in the region, competence in raw material transportation and storage, and a location at the Wilhelmshaven deepwater port.
Hugo Dijkgraaf, board member and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Wintershall Dea, stated in a statement, “We need hydrogen from natural gas as well as hydrogen from renewables to assure future energy security in Germany and forward the energy transition.”
“On the Wilhelmshaven location, NWO and Wintershall Dea are ideally complementary. Along the whole value chain, from the generation of hydrogen to its distribution to consumers, we hope to cooperate as partners in the future to expedite the creation of the critically required hydrogen network,” he added.
The created hydrogen can be piped to industrial customers for use as a decarbonized energy source or raw material, lowering their CO2 emissions, according to the firms.
Dr. Jorg Niegsch, Managing Director of NWO, stated, “Together with Wintershall Dea, we are contributing to the energy transition by joining the new EnergyHub in Wilhelmshaven and being a trustworthy and relevant partner for supply security.”
