A new European hydrogen corridor

A recent meeting, held in the presence of the King of the Netherlands and the King of Spain, focused particularly on the essential facilities and infrastructure needed to take forward and develop the production, transport and logistics of green hydrogen and its contribution to decarbonisation.

Andima Ormaetxe, operations, commercial, logistics and strategy director of the Port of Bilbao, explained the port’s commitment to decarbonisation, highlighting the projects it is taking forward to become a key player in the sector.

Working together

Mr Ormaetxe was joined by representatives of Ente Vasco de la Energía / the Basque Energy Agency, Petronor, Alba-Petronor, GasLog, Evos, Sunoco and KLM, who together discussed their different roles in the planned hydrogen supply chain between the north of the Iberian Peninsula and the Netherlands, their expectations and the challenges they face.

Petronor, part of the Repsol group, has a 46,700 m² concession in the Port of Bilbao for the construction and operation of a logistics and industrial terminal to handle associated maritime traffic.

The area covered by the terminal will include a synthetic fuels production plant and an electrolytic hydrogen production plant. This initiative will require an investment of more than €200 million, with the first facilities scheduled to be operational at the beginning of 2026.

The meeting held in Amsterdam is one of the actions provided for under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed by the ports of Bilbao and Amsterdam, the Basque Energy Agency (EVE), Petronor and the Dutch organisations SkyNRG, Evos Amsterdam and Zenith Energy Terminals, on hydrogen and its transport along the maritime route between the two ports.

The MoU is in line with the ambitions of the European Union to set up this type of intra-European corridor, with the Dutch and Spanish governments playing a leading role in delivering this objective.