H²Egypt Agrees with Chinese PERIC to Assemble Electrolyzers in Cairo

Electrolyzer for green hydrogen production. (Getty Images)
Electrolyzer for green hydrogen production. (Getty Images)
TT

H²Egypt Agrees with Chinese PERIC to Assemble Electrolyzers in Cairo

Electrolyzer for green hydrogen production. (Getty Images)
Electrolyzer for green hydrogen production. (Getty Images)

Dalia Samir, Co-Founder and Director of Hydrogen Egypt (H²Egypt), unveiled a partnership deal with Chinese PERIC to assemble and produce parts of the electrolyzer units in Egypt during the first quarter of 2024.

Globally, PERIC is the biggest company in terms of the production of electrolyzer units to produce hydrogen.

Samir informed Asharq Al-Awsat that, in the first phase, the partnership entails technical cooperation to assemble electrolyzer units and to significantly manufacture a portion of them within Egypt.

This partnership would contribute to passing PERIC’s expertise and advanced technology to the Egyptian market.

PERIC Hydrogen Technologies Co., Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Purification Equipment Research Institute of CSIC. It is headquartered in Handan City, Hebei Province. It is mainly engaged in the research, design, and manufacturing of hydrogen generation system, as well as the utilization and research development of hydrogen energy.

Currently, PERIC operates six commissioning and machining workshops. The annual production capacity amounts to 350 sets of alkaline-type hydrogen generators and 120 sets of PEM-type hydrogen generators.

Samir added that a high-ranking delegation from PERIC is expected to visit Cairo in September to determine the volume of the company to be established in partnership with H²Egypt and to set a specific date to start assembling and producing parts of the electrolyzer units in Egypt during the first quarter of 2024.

PERIC plans to provide training for the maintenance and operational staff, along with conducting studies aimed at obtaining a stake in the capital alongside other Egyptian shareholders.

Well-informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that PERIC signed deals to supply equipment to foreign firms that have previously signed hydrogen production projects with the Egyptian government in the past months.

The deals are at a value ranging between $200 and $300 million.

PERIC exported its products to over 30 countries and regions spanning Europe, North America, the Middle East, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

In mid-September, H²Egypt is organizing an international conference in Cairo dedicated to the hydrogen industry. The conference will see participation from both domestic and international public and private sectors.

Chinese company PERIC will be present with a high-level delegation to engage in the signing of agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs).



Saudi Aramco Does Not Plan to Increase Its Stake in Horse Powertrain 

Aramco's Executive Vice President for products and customers Yasser Mufti poses for a photograph during an interview with Reuters, in Milan, Italy August 31, 2024. (Reuters)
Aramco's Executive Vice President for products and customers Yasser Mufti poses for a photograph during an interview with Reuters, in Milan, Italy August 31, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

Saudi Aramco Does Not Plan to Increase Its Stake in Horse Powertrain 

Aramco's Executive Vice President for products and customers Yasser Mufti poses for a photograph during an interview with Reuters, in Milan, Italy August 31, 2024. (Reuters)
Aramco's Executive Vice President for products and customers Yasser Mufti poses for a photograph during an interview with Reuters, in Milan, Italy August 31, 2024. (Reuters)

Saudi Aramco does not plan to increase its 10% stake in fuel-based engines joint venture Horse Powertrain while it continues to pursue more deals to expand its downstream presence, a senior executive told Reuters.

Aramco in June agreed to buy a 10% stake in Horse Powertrain, valuing the venture with Renault and Geely at around 7.40 billion euros ($8.2 billion), as part of its growing interest in the automotive industry, including in the development of so called e-fuels.

"The 10% stake hits all of the boxes that we have for our financial and strategic objectives for this company," Yasser Mufti, Aramco's executive vice president for products and customers, said in an interview in Milan, where he was to follow Formula 1 Grand Prix in Monza at the weekend.

"I saw a lot of speculation about that but we were always targeting a 10% stake," he said, in the first public comments by a senior Aramco executive on the company's plans for the Horse Powertrain joint-venture.

Geely and Renault will each own 45% of the venture, which will supply gasoline engines, hybrid systems and gearboxes for internal combustion engine vehicles.

Aramco, the world's top oil exporter, is expected to finalize the stake purchase later this year.

Horse Powertrain aims to become a global supplier for automakers, which can buy "off-the-shelf" engines compatible with advanced fuels, Mufti said. "By 2050, half the (global auto) fleet will still be conventional combustion engines or hybrids".

More M&A deals will come for Aramco, after those it closed in the past 12 months, which include the purchases of Chilean fuel retailer Esmax and of stakes in Gas & Oil Pakistan and US-based MidOcean, its first LNG investment abroad.

"We're very busy in this space," Mufti said.

"The downstream business is where we have M&A opportunities and now LNG (liquefied natural gas) as well. We have targets and markets and we work with these opportunities as they come."

Downstream refers to refining, and sales and marketing of oil and gas products.

Last year, Aramco spent around $9 billion on acquisitions, up from $4.2 billion in 2022, according to LSEG data, and is now discussing more deals, including acquiring stakes in China's Shandong Yulong Petrolchemical and Hengli Petrochemical.

Aramco on Tuesday also announced it was broadening its partnership with the Aston Martin Formula 1 team, ahead of the 2026 implementation of new Formula 1 regulations, including requirements for sustainable fuels.

Mufti said Aramco was investing "hundreds of millions" to build two demonstration facilities with partners in Saudi Arabia and Spain, to develop e-fuels, that can be used in internal combustion engine vehicles and help reduce carbon footprint.

Made by synthesizing captured CO2 emissions and hydrogen produced using renewable or CO2-free electricity, e-fuels are not cheap. Their estimated cost is 2 euros per litter if produced at scale, four times the typical wholesale price for petrol made from oil.

The two facilities would be "excellent starting points" to help Aramco understand how to scale up e-fuels production and bring costs down, Mufti said. "I can be 100% confident that the current cost structure will be improved on dramatically".

Costs of making e-fuels could fall to between 0.70-1.33 euros per liter in 2050, according to lobby group eFuel Alliance.