据1月20日IHS Markit报道，马来西亚国家石油公司(Petronas)计划利用碳捕获、利用和封存(CCUS)来发展其新兴的低碳氢（蓝氢）业务。该公司认为，绿色氢气在经济上不具有竞争力。

马国油氢气部门负责人艾哈迈德（Adlan Ahmad）在1月12日举行的能源工业理事会“亚太地区向清洁能源过渡展望”网络研讨会上表示，该公司正利用其在日本和韩国销售液化天然气的现有行业关系，“积极”寻求购买蓝氢的客户和开发绿氢的合作伙伴。

艾哈迈德表示：“去年欧佩克石油危机和新冠肺炎疫情影响了其油气业务后，马石油决定销售低碳氢气。我们的客户已经在寻求“零碳”液化天然气和氢气，因此国际大型能源公司排起了队，决定进入这一行业”。

马国油在10月份推出了氢能源业务部门，此前该公司公布了5年来首次季度亏损。马国油公布，2020年4月至6月期间亏损了210亿令吉(合50.2亿美元)，而2019年同期盈利147亿令吉(合36.4亿美元)。该公司表示，亏损是由公司调整油价预期时的减值支出造成的。

新冠肺炎疫情、能源转型进程加快和欧佩克石油危机使该公司业务受到了严重影响，有必要通过进军其他市场来转移和保障其未来发展，将公司可以较少地受到石油和天然气价格波动的影响。

在欧洲石油巨头壳牌(Shell)、英国石油(BP)和埃尼集团(Eni)在2020年承诺实现净零排放之后，油气行业正在围绕这一目标持续迈进。壳牌表示，该公司在2019年向日本东京天然气公司（Tokyo Gas）和GS Energy出售了一批碳中和液化天然气货物。

在承诺净零排放方面，世界银行的数据显示，国家石油公司如果对实现净零目标犹豫不决，可能会威胁到全球的脱碳进程，因为它们控制着全球90%的石油储量，在2011年国家石油公司产量甚至占到了全球石油产量的75%。

与私人石油公司相比，国家石油公司可能不会那么激进，也没有多少选择来达到净零排放的目标。许多国家石油公司正在努力以不同的方式脱碳,但它们不能以放弃石油和天然气业务的方式来实现目标。

第一种方式是加快蓝氢业务发展。

马国油似乎正在加快其低碳和零碳氢业务的步伐，并将其列入了一份到2050年实现净零排放的目标清单中。该公司已经在生产非低碳的灰氢——通过天然气蒸汽重整法生产的氢。

传统的石油和天然气客户，例如公用事业公司，已经开始脱碳，马国油也正在考虑使用CCUS技术和蒸汽重整，将其灰氢转化为低碳的蓝氢。该公司首席执行官Tengku Muhammad Taufik在11月的东盟能源商业论坛上表示，该公司计划生产“零排放”的氢燃料，这些氢燃料来自商业、工业和碳工程产品，与该公司现有的液化天然气业务相一致。

利用可再生电力生产绿氢也是该公司的重要议程。马国油和马来西亚国有公用事业公司沙捞越能源(Sarawak Energy)最近同意评估一个大型绿氢设施，该设施旨在利用沙捞越的可再生水力发电来生产天然气，其水力发电机组总发电产能为3.452吉瓦。沙捞越很早就在这一领域取得了进展，两年前与工业气体生产商林德(Linde)合作推出了氢能源汽车加注站。

值得一提的是，马国油的客户更喜欢绿氢燃料，而绿氢对于该公司来说是新事物，需要与亚洲水电供应商合作，需要考虑利用太阳能、生物质能和其他技术来生产氢气。但成本仍然是生产这种绿氢最大的障碍。当前，生产绿氢的成本仍然很高，大约是每公斤5-6美元。不过，当前世界上的均价大概是每公斤2美元，因此，这对马国油来说是个巨大的挑战。

在电力、交通运输和其他将氢作为原料的行业，有潜在的绿氢客户。关键是电解的电力成本是多少，因为这是相当耗能的工作，同时还要考虑顾客愿意支付多少价格。马国油是全球第四大低温液化天然气出口商，该公司在出口低温液化氢方面拥有专业技术。同时，该公司氨业务也是一大助力，该公司可以使用氨作为载体，减少氢气的冻结，从而使液态气能够通过海洋运输。

此外，马国油的研发计划包括与日本石油天然气勘探公司(JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration)和日本石油天然气金属国家公司(Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp.)研究向日本出口氢气的方法。当然，该公司的脱碳议程还面临其他障碍。IHS Markit公司的一份资料显示，困难包括影响其CCUS计划的资本约束。由于马来西亚天然气田的高二氧化碳含量，该公司可能需要使用昂贵的天然气去除和处理技术，而其2020年上半年亏损了39亿美元。

马国油并不是唯一一家试图转变其天然气业务以满足低碳天然气需求的公司。卡塔尔国家石油公司是全球最大的液化天然气生产商，该公司宣布了碳捕捉和封存设施和“使用最新经过验证的碳减排技术”生产液化天然气的计划。

去年11月，卡塔尔国家石油公司还与新加坡国有企业Pavilion Energy签署了全球首个长期液化天然气协议，旨在购买碳中和液化天然气。

第二种方式是巩固现有合作关系。

马国油希望其氢业务能够在现有合作关系的基础上得到进一步发展，向日本和韩国市场销售液化天然气。根据IHS的报告，该公司目前已承诺向韩国买家出售价值200万吨的液化天然气，并向日本买家出售50万吨的液化天然气。

EIC地区分析师Farhana Borhanudin表示，日本和韩国最近批准了旨在建设氢市场的政策，这为加速亚洲的氢项目带来了可能。

日本于2020年12月承诺出资2万亿日元(190亿美元)资助用于发电、航运和航空的氢燃料项目。同样,韩国也表示,将建立一个340亿韩元的(3100万美元)氢经济基金。据CMS律师事务所的一份指南显示，韩国不仅生产氢动力汽车，而且当前上路的氢动力汽车数量也是最多的。

王佳晶 摘译自 IHS Markit

原文如下：

Malaysian national oil company targets blue hydrogen

Malaysian national oil company Petronas plans to grow its nascent blue, or low carbon hydrogen business using carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), but does not believe green hydrogen is economically competitive yet.

The company is "actively" seeking customers to buy blue hydrogen and partners to develop green hydrogen, banking on its existing relationships selling LNG in Japan and South Korea, the head of Petronas' hydrogen unit, Adlan Ahmad, told the Energy Industries Council's "Outlook on Asia Pacific Transition to Clean Energy" webinar on 12 January.

Petronas decided on marketing low carbon hydrogen after the OPEC oil crisis and coronavirus lockdowns impacted its oil and gas business last year, said Ahmad, adding: "Our customers are already requesting carbon-free LNG and zero carbon hydrogen, so the stars were lining up and the decision was made to enter the business."

Petronas launched its hydrogen business unit in October after it reported its first quarterly loss in five years. Petronas reported a loss of RM21 billion (US$5.02 billion) in the April-June 2020 period, compared with a profit of RM14.7 billion ($3.64 billion) in the year-ago period. It said the loss was due to impairment charges as the company readjusted its oil price outlook.

"The history behind it is related to the pandemic and OPEC oil crisis, where Petronas' business was severely affected, and there was a need for Petronas to pivot and future-proof its business by entering other businesses. It will make us less exposed to fluctuations in oil and gas prices, not to mention energy transition is already hitting us," said Ahmad.

Momentum is growing around net-zero targets in the oil and gas industry after European majors Shell, BP and Eni made net-zero pledges last year, rising to prominence in step with the idea that natural gas can be offset or produced using lower carbon processes. Shell said it sold a carbon neutral LNG cargo to Japan's Tokyo Gas and GS Energy in 2019.

Hesitancy about aiming for net zero by national oil companies could threaten global decarbonization, as they controlled 90% of reserves and accounted for 75% of global oil production in 2011, according to World Bank data.

Oil states may experience less activism and have fewer options with which to reach net zero than private oil companies. "Already, many national oil companies are looking hard at decarbonization in different ways, but they will not be able to abandon oil and gas in the ways that some international oil companies are talking about and they will need to find smarter ways to do it," said EIC Chief Executive Officer Stuart Broadley.

Blue hydrogen agenda

Petronas appears to be on track to accelerate its low-and zero-carbon hydrogen business, which it included in a list of aspirations to help it reach net zero by 2050. It already creates non-low-carbon grey hydrogen, or hydrogen produced through a natural gas steam reforming method.

Traditional oil and gas customers, utilities for example, are beginning to decarbonize, so Petronas is considering using CCUS technology with steam reforming to make its grey hydrogen into lower carbon blue hydrogen. It plans to produce "zero emission" hydrogen fuel produced from commercial, industrial, and carbon-engineered products in a move aligned with its existing LNG business, CEO Tengku Muhammad Taufik told the ASEAN Energy Business Forum in November.

Green hydrogen produced from renewable electricity is also high on the company's agenda. Petronas and Malaysian state-owned utility Sarawak Energy recently agreed to evaluate a large-scale green hydrogen production facility that aims to produce the gas using Sarawak's renewable hydropower, the utility said. It operates a total of 3.452 GW of generation capacity across its hydroelectric power fleet. Sarawak previously made headway in this area, launching a hydrogen vehicle filling station with industrial gas producer Linde two years ago.

Petronas' customers prefer green hydrogen. "Green hydrogen is new to us. We need to partner with suppliers of hydroelectricity in Asia, and we have partners with excess hydroelectricity. We need to look at producing hydrogen from solar, biomass, and other technologies," he said.

But cost remains a barrier to meeting this green hydrogen demand. "The cost to produce 1 kilogram of green hydrogen today is still high. It's about US$5-6 per kilogram and the world is looking more at the point of about US$2 per kilogram. So that is a big challenge for the community," said Ahmad.

There are potential green hydrogen customers in power, transportation, and other industries that use hydrogen as a feedstock. "The key is always what is the cost of the electricity in order for you to do the electrolysis, because it is quite energy intensive, and what is the price the customer is willing to pay," said Ahmad.

"In order for us to be successful in the hydrogen business, it has to be demand-backed. There must be customers who are willing to pay the premium to import and use hydrogen," said Ahmad in the context of explaining how transportation costs impact hydrogen exports. Here, Petronas is already the world's fourth-biggest exporter of cryogenic LNG, which gives it know-how when it comes to exporting cryogenic liquified hydrogen. It has other advantages that would give it an edge in exporting hydrogen, namely its ammonia business, he said. Using ammonia as a carrier eases freezing of hydrogen to enable shipping the liquid gas across oceans.

Ahmad added that other organic carriers were in development. Petronas' R&D plans include studying ways to export hydrogen to Japan with JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration and Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. (JOGMEC), the latter said in March.

Petronas' decarbonization agenda faces other hurdles. Obstacles include capital constraints affecting its plans for CCUS, according to an IHS Markit company profile. Owing to the high carbon dioxide content of Malaysian gas fields, Petronas is likely to use costly gas removal and disposal technologies, but it posted a $3.9 billion loss for the first half of 2020.

Petronas is not alone in trying to transition its natural gas business to meet low-carbon gas demand. The national oil company of Qatar, which also owns the largest LNG producer, announced plans for carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities and LNG made "using the latest proven carbon reduction technologies."

Qatar Petroleum also signed in November what it says is the world's first long-term LNG deal that calculates wellhead-to-discharge-port greenhouse gas emissions, supplying Singapore's state-owned company Pavilion Energy. The move was part of Pavilion Energy's plans to eventually make its LNG purchases carbon neutral.

Existing relationships

Petronas hopes its hydrogen business will build on its existing relationships selling LNG to the relatively advanced hydrogen markets of Japan and South Korea, said Ahmad. It currently has commitments to sell LNG in deals worth 2 MMtpa to South Korean buyers as well as 0.5 MMtpa to a Japanese buyer, according to the IHS report.

Japan and South Korea recently approved policies that aim to build hydrogen markets, bringing a potential to expedite hydrogen projects in Asia, said EIC Regional Analyst Farhana Borhanudin.

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged ￥2 trillion ($19 billion) in December to fund hydrogen as a fuel for electricity generation, shipping, and aviation. Likewise, the South Korean government has said it will establish a ?34 billion (US$31 million) Hydrogen Economy Fund. South Korea not only produces hydrogen-powered vehicles, but it has the greatest number of them on its roads, according to a guide by law firm CMS.