Oil supermajors have started pouring millions in large-scale investments in green hydrogen, giving it the push to become a serious business, reported Bloomberg. Although the global super majors still spend the majority of their money on oil and gas, they are dedicating a growing proportion to low-carbon energy. 

They are after a low-carbon future, which involves multibillion-dollar projects that develop concentrations of renewable electricity and convert into chemicals or clean fuels that can be transported worldwide to power heavy transport, shipping, and aircrafts. 

The companies’ expertise in project management, energy infrastructure and their billion dollar profits make them well-suited to fund green hydrogen developments. 

Julien Rolland, head of power and renewables at commodities broker Trafigura Group Pte Ltd. said, “oil majors have been developing multibillion-dollar projects for eons.” He believes green hydrogen and green ammonia will make up the new energy sector, according to Bloomberg.

“I don’t think any company out there has developed anything to these kinds of scales,” said Gero Farruggio, head of Australia and global renewables at consultant Rystad A/S.

This month saw supermajors make several green hydrogen investments. 

BP Plc will lead in the $36 billion Asian Renewable Energy Hub, a project aiming to install 26 gigawatts of solar and wind farms over a 6,500-square-kilometre stretch of Western Australia’s Pilbara region, and use the electricity generated to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Once fully completed, it would produce about 1.6 million tonnes of green hydrogen or 9 million tonnes of ammonia.

TotalEnergies SE partnered with Adani to invest £50 billion in green hydrogen over the next decade. The initial investments of $5 billion will create four gigawatts of wind and solar capacity, about half of which will power electrolysers producing hydrogen used to manufacture ammonia. The project has potential to expand to one million tonnes of green hydrogen per year by 2030, fed by 30 GW of renewable energy. 

It’s only a matter of time before Shell Plc follows with a megaproject of its own, said Paul Bogers, vice president for hydrogen at the company, reported Bloomberg. Shell is looking for a place where there are sufficient wind and solar resources for a large-scale project that would play to its strengths, he said in an interview on the sidelines of the Financial Times Hydrogen Summit in London.

Chevron Corp. aims to spend billions on a mixture of green and blue hydrogen.