TotalEnergies has secured a long-term supply of green hydrogen for its Saxony-Anhalt refinery, signing a 15-year offtake agreement for 30,000 tonnes annually from RWE’s Lingen electrolyser plant.
The French oil major will use the volumes in its Leuna refinery in Saxony-Anhalt from 2030 to replace some of the grey hydrogen used in its operations.
The hydrogen will be delivered via a 600km section of Germany’s planned 9,000km hydrogen core network (HCN), until the contract’s conclusion in 2044.
Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, said, “This long-term contract for green hydrogen marks an important milestone to reducing our CO2 emissions at our Leuna refinery.”
RWE’s GET H2 Nukleus project at its Lingen gas-fired power plant is currently under construction after reaching final investment decision (FID) last summer.
The 300MW plant will use 200MW of ITM PEM electrolysers and 100MW of Sunfire alkaline systems. Hydrogen produced by the plant will be fed into RWE’s cavern storage facility in Gronau-Epe.
“Six months after the investment decision… we have acquired an important anchor customer in TotalEnergies,” said RWE CEO, Markus Krebber. “This shows that hydrogen works with the right incentives for customers.”
However, with the plant expected to start producing hydrogen in 2027, the agreement leaves a three-year offtake gap. It remains unclear where RWE will look to sell the plant’s volumes until 2030.
This offtake deal is part of TotalEnergies’ wider strategy to decarbonise its refineries. In 2023, the company launched a tender seeking 500,000 tonnes of green hydrogen annually, signalling its commitment to cutting oil and gas emissions by 40% by 2030.
Having signed deals with Air Liquide and Air Products, TotalEnergies has now publicly announced contracts for more than 200,000 tonnes of green and renewable hydrogen per year from 2030.
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