The world’s biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, has set its sights on becoming the biggest player in supplying hydrogen to the market, according to Bloomberg. 

Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister, Abdulaziz bin Salman, has maintained that the Kingdom has ambitious plans, saying: “[Saudi] will not be challenged in its record of being the biggest exporter of hydrogen on earth.” 

In terms of natural resources, the Kingdom has large natural gas reserves that enable it to produce blue hydrogen. This materializes in the form of blue hydrogen (later transformed into Blue Ammonia), a fuel that is produced when gas is reformed in a process that captures the carbon dioxide byproduct. 

With regard to transforming infrastructure, the kingdom has plans to build a $5 billion facility in Neom, where hydrogen will be derived from solar power, so-called green hydrogen. The timeline for this is 2025.

With this said, there is still a long way to go to reduce the cost of production. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), green hydrogen costs between $4.15 and $5.9 per kilogram. On the other side of the scale, the not so environmentally friendly brown hydrogen costs $1.78. Blue Ammonia lies in between the two.

Hydrogen, a fuel seen as pivotal for curbing climate change, is on track to become the next source of clean fuel to help transition away from the environmentally damaging fossil fuels.