Japan’s JOGMEC to support ‘blue’ hydrogen, ammonia projects

TOKYO (Reuters) – State-run Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) will provide financial and technological support to Japan Inc’s ‘blue’ hydrogen and ammonia projects using carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), a company executive said on Tuesday.

Japan’s parliament in May passed a bill to allow JOGMEC to finance hydrogen, ammonia and CCS projects, effective in six months, in addition to coal, oil, gas and metals projects.

“We will have a new mission to help realise a carbon neutral society,” Satoshi Asawa, executive vice president of JOGMEC, told a Clean Coal Day International Symposium.

JOGMEC works to secure a stable supply of energy and natural resources for Japan and this role would be unchanged, he added.

Hydrogen has taken off as the future green fuel of choice, with governments and businesses betting big that the universe’s most abundant element can help fight global warming.

Hydrogen produced from natural gas or coal and which eliminates emissions by CCS is called “blue hydrogen,” while hydrogen extracting from water using electrolysis powered by renewable energy is called “green hydrogen.”

Asawa said green hydrogen still faced hurdles from high costs and the lack of a global supply chain.

“We intend to pursue carbon neutrality by focusing on blue hydrogen and ammonia projects for the time being… but we are looking at increasing the number of green projects in the future,” he said.

JOGMEC will be renamed as Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security later this year.

“Energy security and carbon neutrality are two sides of the same coin. JOGMEC will strike a good balance between these two axes.”

(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)