McDermott arm signs MoU with Korea Gas Corporation to support hydrogen economy

The storage business of US oilfield services provider McDermott and Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore the development of large-scale liquid hydrogen storage to support Korea’s Hydrogen Economy Roadmap, the company said on Thursday.

McDermott's storage business, CB&I, specialises in designing and building field-erected pressure spheres. In the company’s latest venture, it will work with KOGAS, which has grown into the largest LNG-importing company in the world and operates four LNG regasification terminals and 4,945 km of natural gas pipelines in South Korea.

Last year, South Korea announced plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 by replacing coal-fired power generation with renewable sources and internal combustion engine vehicles with hydrogen-powered and battery-based electric vehicles.

“Hydrogen has emerged as a key enabler to meet these decarbonisation goals and KOGAS will play a leading role in building the infrastructure for hydrogen shipping, storage and distribution to make these ambitions a reality,” Seung Lee, Executive Vice President of KOGAS, said in a statement.

CB&I is nearing completion of the world’s largest liquid hydrogen sphere in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.

“Viable storage solutions on both ship and shore will be fundamental for South Korea to realise its carbon neutrality goals,” Cesar Canals, Senior Vice President of CB&I, said in a statement.

"With ongoing research and development efforts well underway to scale up capacity thresholds for liquid hydrogen storage, CB&I is honored to join KOGAS in setting the pace for the rapid development of a large-scale hydrogen economy for South Korea," he added.