<article><p class="lead">State-owned Qatar Energy (QE) said today it has signed an agreement with Shell to work together on blue and green hydrogen projects in the UK.</p><p>The partners will look in particular at "integrated and scalable opportunities in key sectors where hydrogen could help decarbonise, especially around industrial cluster development and also for the transport sector, with a focus on the London metropolitan area," QE said. </p><p>The agreement adds to a sudden flurry of UK decarbonisation plans, as the country prepares to host the COP 26 summit. Energy firm <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2264543">Ineos yesterday said</a> it will invest in UK green hydrogen as part of a Europe-wide plan, and the [London government today selected])https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2264969) its first two carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) cluster.</p><p>QE chief executive Saad al-Kaabi said today's agreement, which was signed on the sidelines of the UK Global Investment Summit in London, "creates a viable path for innovation and investments in low carbon fuels and technologies across the UK's energy sector, a key area of investment for QE."</p><p>Blue hydrogen is produced using natural gas and the resulting carbon is captured and stored. Green hydrogen is produced using renewable energy.</p><p>While some of Qatar's Mideast Gulf neighbours have made noise about their potential to dominate the emerging global hydrogen market, Doha has been relatively restrained and has not announced any domestic hydrogen projects. But Qatar's emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani today announced the creation of a new environment and climate change ministry to be led by Faleh bin Nasser al-Thani, just weeks before the UN's Cop-26 climate change conference Glasgow next month. Al-Kaabi remains energy minister.</p><p>The Shell agreement <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2262241">follows Doha's rebranding</a> of state-owned Qatar Petroleum to QE, as the country moves to solidify its dominance of the global LNG market and positions itself for the transition to a lower-carbon energy system. QE is working to increase Qatar's LNG production capacity to 126mn t/yr by 2027 from 77m t/yr now. The expansion is part of Qatar's narrative of gas being the most viable "bridge" to a lower-carbon future for the industry, especially in developing countries.</p><p>Shell is already a partner on the existing Qatari LNG trains and is among the international energy companies hoping to win stakes in the expansion, with up to 30pc equity on offer. A big part of the interest was a result of QE's plans to capture and store CO2 from the LNG projects. Qatar has already started decarbonising its LNG, and currently captures and stores 2mn t/yr of CO2 — a figure that QP hopes will grow to 9mn t/yr by 2030.</p><p class="bylines">By Adal Mirza</p></article>
