Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power is to sign a $7bn agreement with Omanoil and Air Products to produce green hydrogen in Oman’s Salalah free zone.

The agreement will be signed on 7 December as part of a visit to the sultanate from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. On 6 December, 13 memorandum of understandings (MoU), valued at more than $10bn, were signed between Saudi and Omani firms.

Acwa Power and US-based Air Products are already moving ahead with plans to develop a $5bn hydrogen-based ammonia plant in Saudi Arabia.

The $5bn hydrogen-based plant will be located at the planned $500bn Neom development on the Red Sea Coast of the kingdom, one of the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF’s) key megaprojects planned to diversify the country’s economy away from a dependence on oil.

The project will be powered by more than 4GW of renewable energy, and will be able to produce 1.2 million tonnes per year of ammonia. The plant will produce 650 tonnes of hydrogen daily, Air Products revealed in a statement released on 7July.