Logistics & Offtake in Energy
Novel safety issues and still-maturing market and regulatory frameworks don't need to be obstacles.
Overview
Key issues
Transportation of H2: Whether your offtake is gases, liquids or even certain solid compounds, carriers have different safety and technical requirements, and it’s still unclear which will be widely adopted for international maritime transportation.
Greenwashing: Your transport choice and its carbon intensity will affect your statements on "net zero", "carbon neutral" or "green product".
Shipping: Consider long-term port infrastructure early in the project, along with its access requirements, the risk of price review shock, and employment conditions and risks of disputes when choosing a port.
Pipelines: Hydrogen in gaseous form is transported via pipeline, so there are very similar issues to those for natural gas pipelines.
Negative carbon: Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects will be important to meet emission reduction targets, which presents opportunities to repurpose existing infrastructure or develop new integrated networks, but without regulatory frameworks there will also be some risks.
Green energy and certification requirements for green products: Exporting requirements and, in particular, Europe’s certification for exporting green energy products.
H2 Sales Agreements: While these are similar to those for natural gas or LNG, some unique issues include catering for delays in start-up, limited benchmark pricing, higher risk of price review disputes, and the fact that H2 is highly combustible, which will affect the delivery point.