Green hydrogen logistics: Chile preparing for Dutch trade delegation

A Dutch delegation including industrial suppliers, consultants and port authorities is due to visit Chile next week to explore potential green hydrogen cooperation and investment opportunities, BNamericas was told.

The focus is on export logistics infrastructure in the country’s two potential development hubs: southern Magallanes and northern Antofagasta regions.

The delegation is due to visit windswept Magallanes and later meet, in Santiago, with officials from industrial hub Mejillones in Antofagasta region and the rest of the Chilean green hydrogen ecosystem.

The third of its kind, the visit is being jointly organized by business-development body Netherlands Enterprise Agency and the Dutch embassy in Chile, with the support of the Chilean energy ministry, investment promotion agency InvestChile, export promotion agency ProChile and bilateral chamber of commerce Holland House Chile. Marcelo Villagrán, former trade commissioner at the Chilean embassy in the Netherlands is also part of the organizing team.

Villagrán said the goal was building on established business relationships to start getting the wheels turning.

“The aim now is doing more than connecting people. The idea of this mission is to use all the information we have, all the connections, in order to start projects,” said Villagrán, who is managing director of Chilean environmental and energy consultancy Mankuk Consulting & Services. 

Over 50 green hydrogen projects, involving some US$330bn in investment opportunities, have been publicly announced in Chile and are in the feasibility or prefeasibility phase. 

“At Mankuk we have technical experience and deep knowledge of the energy and hydrogen market, which allow us to advise our clients with precise information to accelerate the development of hydrogen projects,” added Villagrán.

“Chile needs to move forward to prepare themselves to start executing the projects, but before that, there is still a lot of work to be done. We need ambitious public-private collaboration now.”

Chile has signed hydrogen bilateral collaboration agreements with Dutch stakeholders and in 2021 started a structured dialogue followed by trade missions to the Netherlands and Chile. 

The Netherlands is home to major ports and multiple companies with logistics and infrastructure sector value chain expertise and capacity. Both governments foster collaboration among companies to develop joint projects to support the international hydrogen supply chain. 

In Magallanes, state oil company Enap has announced joint projects with hydrogen developers to adapt and convert, for shared use, existing hydrocarbons logistics infrastructure at its Laredo and Gregorio maritime terminals.  

“The good news is that Enap is now leading the development of common infrastructure for Magallanes, so we have a lot of opportunities to collaborate there,” Villagrán said.

“We’re going to meet not only with Enap but also the developers, with the idea of exploring the possibility of becoming part of this common infrastructure.”

Villagrán underscored the critical role of infrastructure to project development. 

“This [visit] is more about infrastructure. The whole value chain is not ready to develop those projects so we want to focus on the infrastructure,” he said, adding that potential opportunities span the likes of ports, pipelines and storage.

During a hydrogen event next week in Santiago, similar discussions will be held with officials from Mejillones, which the delegation visited last November. 

“A joint statement was signed last May during the World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam between stakeholders of both countries with special focus on Mejillones and now it’s time to turn the collaboration into concrete actions,” Villagrán said.

Europe has set a 2030 target of importing 10Mt/y of green hydrogen/derivatives, an opportunity that is whetting appetites in Chile, which has a state strategy to build a hydrogen-exporting industry and the abundant clean energy needed to help produce it at competitive rates.

Despite the possibility for domestic consumption, the focus in Chile is on selling hydrogen and its derivates to foreign buyers, particularly in Europe and Asia. 

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Two projects are currently in the environmental evaluation phase, one involving over US$800mn and targeting the export market, the other US$30mn and geared, at least initially, to local industrial offtakers.

All eyes will be on the progress of projects through the environmental and social assessment procedure, which often comes under fire for being complex and lengthy but has undergone some tweaks in preparation for the nascent hydrogen wave. Reform bills to speed up permitting have been announced but not yet submitted to congress.