Oil windfall fuels Saudi hydrogen plans

High oil prices are helping Riyadh fund its move into hydrogen, with Acwa Power making swift progress on the Neom megaproject

As Saudi Aramco flaunted bountiful returns from soaring crude oil prices in its first-quarter results in mid-May, the company’s embryonic plans to diversify into hydrogen were barely mentioned. Nonetheless, the proceeds of the oil windfall are indirectly fuelling the hydrogen sector’s development, with the government and affiliated local renewables company Acwa Power now making swift progress on Neom, the world’s largest green hydrogen and ammonia project. Meanwhile, behind Aramco’s defiant public focus on upstream hydrocarbons, the firm is also preparing for a day when the cleaner fuel might be the more valuable. Acwa and US industrial gases company Air Products met with considerable scepti