Woodside Energy Group Ltd is partnering with Japan Suiso Energy Ltd (JSE) and Kansai Electric Power Co Inc (KEPCO) to develop a liquid hydrogen supply chain between Australia and Japan.
The three signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that provides for the export to Japan of liquid hydrogen from Woodside’s proposed H2Perth project in Western Australia.
“The MoU reflects the parties’ shared ambition to accelerate the energy transition, bringing together technology, infrastructure and international collaboration to help power a lower-carbon future, underpinning the value of a hydrogen supply chain and further strengthening Australian-Japan relations”, the three companies said in a joint statement.
To rise in Perth’s Rockingham and Kwinana Industrial Zones, the facility would produce liquid hydrogen by reforming natural gas. Woodside plans an initial capacity of 100 metric tons per day (tpd), according to an information sheet it published August 2025.
The Australian oil and gas company plans to implement carbon capture and storage at the project and offset the remainder of emissions from the facility through carbon credits.
The proposed project has been revised from an initial plan to build a facility for ammonia and hydrogen ammonia production, “based on market feedback”, according to the information sheet.
As of August the project was at the technical design stage, according to the information sheet.
Adjacent to the planned site for H2Perth, Woodside is building a green hydrogen production, storage and refueling station with a 2.6-megawatt electrolyzer. Targeted for startup 2026, the Hydrogen Refueller @H2Perth project would supply heavy vehicles, passenger cars and tube trailers with a capacity of 0.235 tpd, scalable to as much as approximately one tpd, according to a project sheet published August 2024 by Woodside.
Last year, Woodside, Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd and South Korea’s HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co Ltd and Hyundai Glovis Co Ltd penned a non-binding MoU to study developing an integrated marine transport system for liquid hydrogen.
“The companies will now focus their efforts on developing new liquid hydrogen business opportunities in Asia and other regions with an ~80 000m3 liquid hydrogen shipping solution”, Woodside said in a statement February 14, 2024.
“The collaboration will include key technology qualification, safety, constructability and operability studies with the potential to ensure safe, flexible and efficient shipping of LH2 by a target date of 2030”.
In 2020 Woodside inked an agreement for a joint hydrogen feasibility study with Japanese companies JERA Co Inc, Marubeni Corp and IHI Corp.
The companies were eyeing a project for the export of hydrogen as ammonia for use in helping decarbonize power generation in Japan, according to a Woodside statement May 8, 2020.
Another South Korean company, state-owned Korea Gas Corp, in 2019 entered into a non-binding agreement with Woodside for a feasibility study on a green hydrogen project, as announced September 20 that year.
Elsewhere, Woodside last year acquired OCI Global’s ammonia production project in Beaumont, Texas. The facility, which Woodside bought for $2.35 billion, has a planned capacity of 1.1 million metric tons per annum. Woodside expects the facility to start producing ammonia this year and lower-carbon ammonia next year.
Source: By Jov Onsat from Rigzone.com