ONGC plans $10bn spend on green hydrogen and ammonia

ONGC, India’s largest state-owned oil & gas company, is planning to spend 800bn-850bn rupees ($9.6bn-10.2bn) on developing two million tonnes of green ammonia annual production capacity by 2035.

In June 2022, ONGC announced a memorandum of understanding with renewables developer Greenko to jointly develop a 1.3GW electrolyser facility supplying one million tonnes a year of green ammonia production.

The firm has also more recently floated plans for a one-million-tonnes-a-year renewable NH3 facility in the port city of Mangalore — although it is unclear whether this is being jointly developed with Greenko or is a separate project.

ONGC has also not bid into the first Indian auction for green hydrogen or electrolyser manufacturing subsidies, likely due to the pre-close stage of its joint venture.

ONGC more broadly plans to spend 1trn rupees ($12bn) on installing 10GW of renewable energy assets by 2030, including 5GW of wind and solar, 2GW of pumped storage, and 1GW of offshore wind.