Gazprom Neft to develop hydrogen technologies

Gazprom Neft has joined the Industrial Partners Council of the Technological Hydrogen Valley Consortium and will participate in projects to develop technologies for the production, transportation, storage and use of hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

Gazprom Neft produces over 100k tonnes/year of hydrogen and plans to reach 250k tonnes/year by 2024. It uses hydrogen as an agent in oil refining. Over the last five years, it has been engaged in projects to capture carbon dioxide and pump it into oil reservoirs to maintain reservoir pressure and increase oil recovery. It has already used the technology at the Rusanda field of NIS in Serbia, a joint venture between Gazprom Neft and the Government of Serbia.

The Technological Hydrogen Valley consortium was established in Russia in November 2020 at the initiative of universities together with the Russian Academy of Sciences and industrial companies. Its members include Sibur, Russian Railways, Severstal, Transmashholding, Rosatom, TMK and others. The consortium will mainly work in the Tomsk, Sakhalin, Samara regions, as well as the city of Chernogolovka in the Moscow region.

Alexey Vashkevich, Director of Technological Development at Gazprom Neft, said, “Russia has a huge potential to occupy a commercial niche in the global market of quotas for CO2 utilisation. We have already formed a technological chain for the capture, storage, transportation and geological disposal of carbon dioxide.”

Mikhail Nikulin, Director of Gazprom Neft Centre for Industrial Innovation, said, “The Center is preparing to conduct laboratory stages in several areas, the introduction of which will provide its own refineries with turquoise hydrogen, and in the future – to organise the supply of this gas for the needs of new energy and industry.“