Ecopetrol Group started the production of green H₂ with a 50 kilowatts electrolyzer and 270 solar panels at the Cartagena refinery. Following a robust selection process, which included more than eighty companies from sixteen countries, six companies were chosen as allies. Low-carbon H₂ will contribute to the reduction of Carbon emissions of the Ecopetrol Group by 2050.

With the purpose of advancing the results of its strategic plan of low-carbon H₂ (green, blue and white), Ecopetrol selected Total Eren and EDF from France, Siemens Energy from Germany, H2B2 from Spain, Empati from UK and Mitsui from Japan, as strategic allies. Next June, these six companies and Ecopetrol will begin a joint work to articulate actions that will strengthen the development of the low-carbon strategic plan, with specific projects to decarbonize production of H₂ at the refineries and initiatives for industrial use and sustainable mobility.

The main objectives of these alliances are:

• Achieve competitiveness of the production cost of low-carbon H₂.
• Structure opportunities of financing and investment as well as integrate supply chain of new technologies.
• Identify markets in early stages.
• Potentiate access to renewable energies and accelerate projects timetables execution.

“We continue working in the development of our plan of low-carbon hydrogen production that seeks to diversify the portfolio and decarbonize our operations. Currently we have eighteen opportunities and initiatives in progress, and these alliances with specialized companies will robust our plan to achieve the goals that we have set in our strategy 2040 Energy that Transform,” said Ecopetrol’s CEO, Felipe Bayón in Davos (Switzerland) where he is attending the 2022 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum.

More than 80 companies from 16 countries participated in a rigorous and transparent process, that included three sorting stages and concluded with the selection of six companies to close the alliances. The factors considered in the selection process were availability of investment capital, access to cutting-edge technology, experience in project development, access to markets and added valued.

For the execution of its strategic plan of green, blue and white H₂, that has a production goal of 1 MMtpy by 2040, the Ecopetrol Group estimates annual investments close to $140 MM until 2040. This energetic will contribute with 9% to 11% of the goal of reducing 50% of carbon emissions, in scopes 1, 2 and 3, by 2050.