Ports of Bilbao and Amsterdam meet on development of hydrogen corridor

In the presence of the King of the Netherlands and the King of Spain, a meeting was recently held in Amsterdam on the development of a European renewable hydrogen corridor between the ports of Bilbao and Amsterdam, Bilbao Port reported on its website.

The event focused particularly on the essential facilities and infrastructure that characterise the two ports to take forward and develop the production, transport and logistics of green hydrogen and its contribution to decarbonisation, with a view to zero net emissions.

The event was attended by a large number of business and institutional representatives from both countries. Andima Ormaetxe, Operations, Commercial, Logistics and Strategy Director of the Port of Bilbao, explained the port’s commitment to decarbonisation, highlighting its competitive advantages and the projects it is taking forward to become a key player in this corridor.

Mr Ormaetxe was joined by the general director of Ente Vasco de la Energía / the Basque Energy Agency, Iñigo Ansola; the CEO at Petronor, José Ignacio Zudarie; and the general director of Alba-Petronor, Aitor Arzuaga, as well as representatives of GasLog, Evos, Sunoco and KLM, who together discussed their different roles in the planned hydrogen supply chain between the north of the Iberian Peninsula and the Netherlands, their expectations and the challenges they face.

Petronor, part of the Repsol group, has a 46,700 m² concession in the Port of Bilbao for the construction and operation of a logistics and industrial terminal to handle associated maritime traffic. The area covered by the terminal will include a synthetic fuels production plant and an electrolytic hydrogen production plant. This initiative will require an investment of more than 200 million euros, with the first facilities scheduled to be operational at the beginning of 2026.

The meeting held in Amsterdam is one of the actions provided for under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed by the ports of Bilbao and Amsterdam, the Basque Energy Agency (EVE), Petronor and the Dutch organisations SkyNRG, Evos Amsterdam and Zenith Energy Terminals, on hydrogen and its transport along the maritime route between the two ports.

The MoU is in line with the ambitions of the European Union to set up this type of intra-European corridor, with the Dutch and Spanish governments playing a leading role in delivering this objective.