Cepsa and ACE Terminal make progress on the green hydrogen corridor from the region to Rotterdam

Gibraltar & El Campo
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Cepsa and ACE Terminal have signed a memorandum of understanding whereby the Spanish energy company will supply green ammonia to the planned import terminal at the Port of Rotterdam, for final use in industry after conversion of the ammonia back into green hydrogen, or for direct use as a renewable fuel for the maritime sector and other industries in North West Europe.

Cepsa is developing 2 GW of green hydrogen capacity at its two Energy Parks in Andalusia, in San Roque (and its facilities throughout the Bay of Algeciras) and in Huelva, as part of its 2030 strategy, Positive Motion, to become a leader in sustainable mobility and the production of renewable hydrogen and second generation biofuels, and thus a benchmark in the energy transition. The two hydrogen plants, which will represent an investment of 3,000 million euros, will form part of the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley, the largest green hydrogen hub in Europe, for which Cepsa has recently signed several collaboration agreements throughout the hydrogen value chain.

Gasunie, HES International and Vopak have partnered to develop the ACE terminal as an entry point in the Netherlands for green ammonia as a renewable hydrogen carrier and sustainable feedstock. The open access terminal will be located in the Port of Rotterdam, a crucial logistics infrastructure for Northwest Europe from an energy perspective. With the planned reuse of assets and infrastructure, ACE Terminal is a near-term commercialisation project. The agreement reached with Cepsa is ACE's first for the import of green hydrogen and ammonia.

The agreement announced today between Cepsa and ACE Terminal is the start of a collaboration aimed at reaching a binding commercial agreement to facilitate the shipping of green ammonia, redistribute the green ammonia to end markets in the catchment area of the Port of Rotterdam, and convert the green ammonia into green hydrogen for use by customers in North West Europe. The location of the ACE terminal in the Port of Rotterdam offers a direct connection to the Rotterdam industry and the planned national hydrogen network, and also has an excellent connection to the infrastructure to North West Europe, connecting by hydrogen to the industries in Germany, Belgium and Denmark.

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The IGA urges government (Spanish) to include the Campo de Gibraltar in the hydrogen corridor project

The Association of Large Industries of Campo de Gibraltar (AGI) claims to the Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, "not to exclude the province of Cadiz in the route of the H2Med Green Hydrogen corridor project". This includes two national axes, one that will connect Huelva with Gijón and the other Barcelona and Cartagena.

The president of the AGI, Antonio Moreno, describes this situation as "very serious", as he understands that "the second industrial centre of Spain and the Port of the Bay of Algeciras, first in Spain and the Mediterranean, fourth in Europe, and the most efficient in the EU and tenth in the world" have been left aside.

"This would be a great comparative disadvantage, which would seriously harm the development of our region and the province of Cadiz, where the high unemployment figures recorded in the past year, with an unemployment rate of 25.02%, well above the rest of the average in Spain, are a cause for concern," he adds.

The Association of Large Industries of Campo de Gibraltar (AGI) recalls that it represents "one of the most dynamic and important industrial centres in Spain in terms of employment generation, investment and gross added value". "Today the 15 companies that make up the AGI, with the Port of Algeciras Bay at the head, generate more than 18,000 jobs in the region, and in the last decade alone have invested more than 2,620.2 million euros to improve production processes, facilities and equipment for environmental protection and the preservation of occupational health and safety, as well as R+D+i projects. This all makes this industrial and port hub a generator of employment and welfare and one of the most solid bases of the Andalusian economy, being a real economic lung for the region, a border area and the southernmost territory in Europe".

Moreno qualifies that the non-inclusion of a hydrogen branch to the Bay of Algeciras "would leave us out of the progress that is heading towards the ecological transition, a process in which all our companies are already adapting". "With the proposed route, companies, large consumers of natural gas in non-electrification processes, may lose the opportunity to use H2 to reduce CO2 emissions or even find themselves in a situation that forces them to relocate to other sites," he adds. Moreno recalls that the AGI includes companies such as EDP, the former Los Barrios thermal power plant, with a large green H2 generation project.

The president of the AGI affirms that the reality of the companies of the industrial pole of the Campo de Gibraltar has not been contemplated in this process of energy transition, even more so "with the remote possibility by 2040 the conditioned import of H2 from North Africa".