Uniper and Novatek signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday to investigate the potential for Novatek to supply both blue and green hydrogen to Uniper’s power stations and markets in Russia and Northwest Europe.

“Uniper is committed to turn the European generation business carbon neutral by 2035,” says Andreas Schierenbeck, Uniper CEO. “Hydrogen will play a major role in achieving these goals.”

The Dusseldorf company, the third-largest listed German utility, sees hydrogen as a component of its strategy to decarbonise power generation. The agreement with Novatek extends an existing gas relationship.

“Our cooperation provides great opportunities for the evaluation of a H2 supply chain starting from Russia” Uniper

“Germany, like many other heavily industrialised countries, will be dependent on hydrogen imports, as the demand for hydrogen exceeds production capacities,” says Schierenbeck. “Therefore, we are seeking worldwide cooperations and partnerships. As an already trusted supplier of natural gas, Novatek is well prepared to develop export capabilities for hydrogen.”

Uniper is involved in both European power generation and global energy trading. It had a gas turnover of 220bn m³ in 2019 and maintains c.34GW of installed generation capacity.

“It fits well into Uniper’s H₂ strategy,” a spokesperson tells Hydrogen Economist. “Europe will need to import H₂ or [associated] required products in the long term to meet the expected demand.

“Novatek is a long-term partner and a global LNG player. Hence our cooperation provides great opportunities for the evaluation of a H₂ supply chain starting from Russia.”

Novatek is Russia’s largest independent gas producer, producing more than 77bn m³/yr with about 9bn m³/yr of LNG sold in international markets. Its three-train Yamal LNG project, on the Siberian coast, shipped its first LNG cargo in 2017 and has operated at full capacity since 2018.

Novatek is therefore ideally placed to provide feedstock for blue hydrogen, or to create it itself. However, the Uniper spokesperson said it was too early to comment on the relative balance of green and blue hydrogen being investigated, or similarly on the timeline for any stage of the collaboration.

“It is clear that Europe will need to import H₂ or respectively required products in the long term to meet expected demand,” said the Uniper spokesperson. “As a global gas and commodity trading company, we have decades of experience and believe that we can use this experience to build a hydrogen economy as well.”

c.34GW – Uniper’s generation capacity

Likewise, Uniper was unable to comment on whether it is investigating whether to blend hydrogen into natural gas, which is an emerging trend. For example, Italian gas infrastructure company Snam and energy technology company Baker Hughes successfully tested a hybrid turbine last July that can accept hydrogen blends.

In a separate deal involving Baker Hughes and Novatek, announced today, turbomachinery for the liquefaction process will be retrofitted to accept a natural gas and hydrogen blend.

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Author: Alastair O’Dell<BR>Senior Editor