Continue along the path defined five months ago in Brussels with the signing of the agreement with the port of Damietta and give full continuity to the initiatives planned and launched over the last few years on the decarbonization and energy transition front, focusing on the development of green hydrogen supply chains.
This was the objective the North Tyrrhenian Port Network Authority had in mind when it came to the European Hydrogen Week a few days ago, the key event that brings the entire European hydrogen sector together.
The agenda that the Port Authority had set for the European Hydrogen Week revolved around a precise, ambitious project: making the North Tyrrhenian system a national, European-level hub for importing green hydrogen from countries with high production potential, starting from the southern banks of the Mediterranean.
Crucial from this point of view is fully sharing the strategy and project for setting up a maritime supply chain for green hydrogen with their Egyptian partners, the Maritime Transport Sector of the Egyptian Ministry of Transport and Alexandria and Damietta Port Authorities.
The initiative was discussed at a workshop entitled ‘A Mediterranean supply chain for green hydrogen: opportunities and challenges’, organized by the Port Authority in cooperation with the Maritime Transport Sector, the Arab Academy for Science Technology and Maritime Transport and the University of Pisa.
The workshop, developed with Tuscany Regional Administration’s strategic support, was attended by the European Commission and the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Particularly significant was the presence of Tudor Costinescu, Principal Adviser for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Energy.
“The collaboration with Damietta and the Egyptian ports is certainly strategic and very substantial. It is a cooperation that lays necessary, solid foundations for launching the first major green hydrogen supply chain in the Mediterranean,” said Port Network Authority President, Luciano Guerrieri, stressing how the project’s development opportunities represent a significant case study for developing hydrogen at coastal level.
“The significant step we took in June this year with the signing of the MOU between the port of Livorno and the port of Damietta is a strategic piece of a broader project that aims to set up a hydrogen supply chain in the Mediterranean,” said the President of the Egyptian Maritime Transport Sector, Admiral Tarek Abdallah, adding that “our discussion in Brussels invites us to move forward along the path we defined aimed at the future development not only of our ports but of a resilient green hydrogen economy.”
Translation by Giles Foster