Santos, Fortescue Future Industries and Origin Energy among SA hydrogen hub developers

Billions in investment will be unlocked as energy giants including Santos and Fortescue Future Industries join forces on SA hydrogen hub.

Santos, Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries and Origin Energy are among the eight companies selected to develop a hydrogen hub at Port Bonython, with the State Government saying the total investment could hit $13bn.

Japanese firms Chiyoda, ENEOS Australia and Mitsubishi Australia, Canada’s AMP Energy and Australia’s H2U have also been named as participants in building what is envisaged as a precinct of seven hydrogen projects.

The government has released scant detail about what each project would entail, saying those details would be left to the companies themselves to divulge.

A spokesman for Premier Steven Marshall said the parties had “made a firm financial commitment to the hydrogen hub bid’’ which could not be disclosed at this stage.

“They are all contributing to the design and implementation of common infrastructure such as upgrades to the port, common user last mile infrastructure (pipelines and storage), access roads, etc,’’ the spokesman said.

Santos managing director Kevin Gallagher says the company wants to be a force in hydrogen. Picture: Simon Cross

“This makes it much cheaper to establish an export port at scale, increases the port’s capacity, and reduces the cost to develop each individual projects by sharing.

“They are also developing in parallel their own projects, which would use this as their export port.’’

The major political parties are taking competing hydrogen policies into next week’s state election, with the Labor Party proposing a $593m government-owned hydrogen power plant to be built in the Whyalla or Port Bonython area.

Labor leader Peter Malinauskas has claimed his plan would create more than 11,000 jobs while the Liberal Government has claimed the Labor plan would cost at least $1.07bn, and says building it with public money would force out private investment.

Adelaide-based Santos has stated claims to be a large player in the hydrogen sector, based off of its carbon capture and storage technology, while Fortescue Future Industries has huge ambitions globally, aiming to build a 15 million tonne per year hydrogen business by 2030.

Andrew Forrest last month launching a green energy manufacturing facility in Queensland.

Mr Marshall said the potential $13bn in projects slated for Port Bonython would generate up to 1.8 million tonnes of hydrogen by 2030.

“The level of global investment interest in the Port Bonython Hydrogen Hub has the capacity to transform South Australia into a renewable energy exporter of world standing in the next decade,’’ Mr Marshall said.

“It will also transform towns across the Upper Spencer Gulf of South Australia – Whyalla, Port Augusta, and Port Pirie – which would benefit enormously from thousands of well-paying jobs.”

Mr Marshall said the project could support the construction of more than six gigawatts of new renewable energy, which would be more than one and a half times the state’s current installed capacity of renewables.

He said the government would support the hub with another $30m from its Jobs and Economic Growth Fund on top of an existing $37m, and anticipated further funding from the federal government’s $464m allocated for hydrogen hub funding.

The expressions of interest process for the hydrogen hub started in May last year, with the successful bidders selected but not named late last year.