State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and its partners will invest USD 6.2 billion (Rs 50,000 crore) in green energy projects to produce carbon-free hydrogen and green ammonia as part of an ambitious decarbonization drive, officials said.

ONGC, the nation's biggest producer of crude oil and natural gas, joins the likes of Reliance Industries Ltd and the Adani group in chasing carbon-free hydrogen.  ONGC has signed a pact with Greenko, one of India's largest renewable energy companies, to form a 50:50 joint venture (JV) for green energy projects. The JV will set up 5.5-7 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind power projects, and use electricity generated from such plants to split water in an electrolyzer to produce green hydrogen, which in turn would be used for manufacturing green ammonia, they said.

The renewable plants together with Greenko's pump storage power generation system will give 1.4 GW of roundthe-clock (RTC) electricity that would be used to produce 0.18 million tonne of green hydrogen per annum (about 20 kg per hour). This hydrogen will be mixed with nitrogen to produce 1 million tonne per annum of green ammonia, which in the initial years will be exported to Europe, Japan and Korea and used within the country when the market develops, they said.

Officials said the renewable energy component of the chain would cost about USD 5 billion while the hydrogen and ammonia plant will cost USD 1.2 billion. ONGC is looking to set up the hydrogen and ammonia plants, which are likely to start production in 2026, on the west coast, preferably near Mangalore, where it has an oil refinery.

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