S. PENSON, Gulf Energy Information, London, England 

German company Mohring Energie Holding signed a framework agreement in 2025 with Mauritania to develop a large-scale green hydrogen (H2) and ammonia production project in the northwest African country. 

The project, located in Mauritania’s southern region where “excellent wind and solar conditions coincide,” will initially feature 100 MW of electrolysis capacity, with the aim to scale up to 1 GW. 

The project will aim to produce up to 140,000 tpy of green H2 and 400,000 tpy of green ammonia for export to European markets. Production is scheduled to start in 2029. 

The framework agreement with Mauritania is linked to a land allocation for the project with an area of about 500 km² in the area west of the commercial city of Nouadhibou, with a potential expansion to about 1,600 km². 

In addition to green molecule production, the project includes plans for seawater desalination and the use of the byproducts in local agriculture, increasing its appeal to the government. 

Mohring joins a growing list of developers entering Mauritania, which has long been touted as one of the world’s most attractive locations for low-cost green molecule production, given its wind and solar potential. The country also has a long track record as a commodities exporter to Europe and elsewhere and is a top 10 global supplier of iron ore. 

On the energy front, oil and gas major bp began exporting from its GTA Phase 1 LNG project offshore Mauritania and Senegal. Mauritania discovered its first large natural gas field, the Grande Tortue Ahmeyim, on the maritime border with Senegal in 2015. 

The government was quick to recognize the green molecule opportunity, launching a low-carbon strategy in 2021, with ambitions to grab up to 1.5% of the global market, with production of about 20 MMtpy by 2050. For context, that is double the European Union’s (EU’s) 2030 target.  

It has initiated a ‘Hydrogen Code’ development program and introduced incentives to attract international investors, including a comprehensive incentive framework to exemptions from value-added taxes (VAT) and export taxes, a reduction in import customs duties from 4% to 2% for early projects and corporate tax incentives. 

Green steel. Perhaps more striking, the strategy includes a target to secure about 1% of the global market for green steel by using locally produced green H2 to process locally mined iron ore.  

This plays into the early buzz around green H2: its potential to redraw the world’s energy and industrial map, with decarbonizing industries relocating to renewables-rich countries and drawing on local green H2 production rather than shipping the molecules to the old industrial centers. 

This big picture thinking around green H2 has been drowned out recently by the industry’s struggles to gain momentum. Volatile geopolitics, concerns over national energy security and waning enthusiasm in some regions for the transition to low carbon have also muddied the waters for H2 and tempered that early optimism. 

The prospect of losing strategic industries to the world’s dominant solar and wind regions remains deeply troubling to governments in Europe and elsewhere. 

However, the economics will have a say and, in the long-term, the Mauritania model of local H2 feeding local industry might be difficult for the markets to resist.