HIF Global and Acciona Nordex Green Hydrogen have signed a deal with Oman's Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology to explore the building of an e-methanol production and bunkering hub in the port of Salalah, in Oman's Dhofar Province. The project leverages vast wind and solar farms producing electricity which are being built in the hinterland behind Salalah, in projects involving EDF, Fortescue, J-Power, Marubeni and Samsung.
The port of Salalah has experienced major growth in recent years, both in container and general cargo traffic. Container traffic grew 21% in the 1H25 compared with the same period last year, with movement of 2.03M TEUs, largely a consequence of the rounding-out of Gemini services provided by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd. General cargo over the equivalent periods grew by 11%, largely on the back of increased gypsum dry bulk cargo. After a recent expansion, Salalah can now handle 6M TEUs annually, and in recent years throughput has grown quickly to match capacity as new facilities are introduced.
The port of Salalah is particularly popular with visiting sailors in the summer, when the local area uniquely enjoys lush green vegetation and monsoon rains, at a time when temperatures in the rest of the region are in the high 40Cs.
HIF Global, based in Houston (TX), has expertise in building and delivering projects which combine captured CO2 and hydrogen - produced by the solar and wind energy - to produce e-methanol. E-methanol can in turn be refined to produce synthetic substitutes for petrol, diesel and aviation fuel.
Separately, two sovereign-owned companies, OQ Alternative Energy and Asyad Shipping, are working with A.P. Moller-Maersk and Sumitomo Middle East to provision e-ammonia and e-methanol bunkering and export facilities at Salalah, but also in the port of Duqm. A local firm, Horizon Energy Salalah, has already signed a lease agreement creating a biofuel storage hub in Salalah.
