OMV Petrom estimates that the demand for hydrogen in Romania will increase considerably only in the next decade. Green hydrogen will play an important role in the decarbonisation of oil refineries and in the transformation of all types of transport, said Alina Stoenescu, Business Development Manager, Refined & Marketing at the company.”Romania needs to link its national policies to European ones and set realistic targets. It is not enough to have targets, we also need levers to achieve them. National strategies must also focus on diversifying options throughout the chain, from equipment suppliers to traders who will trade hydrogen in the market”, at the conference “Hydrogen Project – what is Romania up to”, organised by Energynomics.
OMV Petrom has budgeted total investments of 11 billion euros by the end of the decade, and 35% of these funds will be used for low or zero carbon projects.
This year, for example, the company signed two contracts with the Ministry of Energy for water electrolysis projects at its Petrobrazi refinery. The two projects will be financed by the NRRP. The signed contracts are worth 50 million euros, but the total investment will amount to 140 million euros. Both projects target a capacity of 55 MW to produce 7.7 thousand tonnes of hydrogen, which will be used to produce sustainable fuels.
“The NRRP is a very good starting point for the development of the hydrogen economy, but it is far from sufficient. The application procedure for obtaining funding also needs to be simplified,” she stressed.
In his view, the Romanian state should allocate non-reimbursable funds or devise other mechanisms to reduce the cost of hydrogen. She also believes that it is important to subsidise not only the construction of hydrogen stations for fuelling cars, but also the transporters who will use this fuel.
“If it is not economical for transporters to switch from conventional fuels to hydrogen, they won’t, and then hydrogen stations will be built for nothing,” Stoenescu added.
The conference “Hydrogen Project – what is Romania up to” was organized by Energynomics with the support of our partners Elektra Renewable Support and Horváth.
On this occasion, the Didactic and Pedagogical Publishing House presented the book “Discussions the Hydrogen Energy Vector”, authored by Ioan Iordache, Dumitru Chisăliță, Hans Marius Shuster, Cristian Călin, and Oana Dumitrean, as part of the collection “Academica energie.”