Lukoil, Rusatom Overseas considering green hydrogen production at Romanian refinery

Russian oil and gas conglomerate Lukoil said that it has signed a memorandum of intent with Rusatom Overseas, part of the Rosatom Group, regarding production and supply of green hydrogen at the Petrotel-Lukoil refinery in Ploiesti, southern Romania.

The companies plan to study opportunities for construction of a green hydrogen production unit at the refinery, thus reducing CO2 emissions, Lukoil said in a press release on Thursday.

Lukoil and Rusatom will also look into the issue of obtaining government support for the project at both national and European levels.

"Together with our technological partner, Rosatom State Corporation, we will evaluate prospects for our plant's switching to one of the most environmentally-friendly technology of hydrogen production, which enables refineries to greatly reduce their carbon footprint. In the future, this will allow us to replace all traditionally produced hydrogen, generated by methane steam reforming, with green hydrogen, generated via electrolysis in symbiosis with renewable energy sources," Lukoil vice president for oil refining, petrochemicals and gas processing Rustem Gimaletdinov said.

"Rosatom acts as investor, developer and technological partner in hydrogen projects in Russia and abroad. We are happy to offer our cooperation in supplying "turnkey" low-carbon hydrogen to Lukoil. We are studying possibilities of manufacturing hydrogen at the Romanian refinery by employing electrolysers with production capacity of 10 thousand cubic metres per hour," Rusatom Overseas president Evgeny Pakermanov said.

Rusatom Overseas focuses on the construction of Russian-designed nuclear power plants (NPPs) and Centers of Nuclear Science and Technologies (CNST).

Lukoil, present in Romania since 1998, is operating in all segments of the energy sector, including geological surveys, oil refining, oil and petroleum product supplies, retail and renewable energy.

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