South Korea’s trade, industry and energy ministry MOTIE says a recent bilateral trade forum between Korea and Saudi Arabia resulted in 26 new contracts and MOUs, including green hydrogen deals, Kallanish reports.

It says five Korean companies, including Samsung C&T and KEPCO, signed an MOU with Saudi’s PIF for a partnership on renewables power generation, as well as joint production of green hydrogen and ammonia. KEPCO, Daewoo E&C, and Hyosung Heavy Industries also signed agreements for collaboration on hydrogen/ammonia. Details, however, weren’t shared.

The deal between KEPCO and PIF is reportedly worth around $6.5 billion. The project would be built over 2025-2029 in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, to produce 1.2 million tonnes/year of green hydrogen and ammonia for 20 years.

KEPCO said in a separate statement that it held a meeting with Saudi company ACWA Power at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry on 17 November. They signed a cooperation agreement for ammonia business development, having already inked a MOU in October. Specific details on the potential production capacity and development timeframe are yet to be made public.

“Efforts are being made to create new business opportunities for hydrogen and ammonia to supply the combined hydrogen and ammonia required by domestic and overseas power plants,” KEPCO says.

ACWA Power is co-developing the NEOM green hydrogen/ammonia project in Saudi Arabia, targeted to be commissioned by 2026. At full capacity, the project will produce 1.2m t/y of green ammonia.

The Korean-Saudi bilateral push is aimed at expanding “the basis for full-scale economic and corporate collaboration in response to recent global shifts like supply chain, digital, energy transition and climate change,” MOTIE says. The economic cooperation ties are now said to opened up a “new horizon” beyond shipbuilding, automobiles, clean energy and high-tech manufacturing.