Japanese oil giant announces $200 million green hydrogen investment in Queensland

Japan’s largest oil company has announced a $200 million investment into Queensland’s green hydrogen ambitions, committing to build a hydrogen demonstration plant capable of producing up to 680 kilograms of green hydrogen per day.

Queensland minister for finance, trade, employment, and training Ros Bates announced on Tuesday that Eneos would begin producing green hydrogen at a demonstration plant at Bulwer Island, a reclaimed tidal mangrove island at the mouth of the Brisbane River in the suburb of Pinkenba, Brisbane.

The demonstration plant will be located on approximately 6,000 square metres of land at the former BP refinery site, close to the Port of Brisbane, and will produce green hydrogen in the form of methylcyclohexane (MCH), a hydrogen carrier in liquid form that can be transported at room temperature and normal pressure.

With construction set to begin on the plant next year, Eneos expects MCH production to begin in the middle of 2026. The demonstration project will run for a period of two years and, during the combined construction and demonstration period, will create over 100 new jobs.

Bates said the project would create more than 100 construction jobs.

Green hydrogen projects in Australia have struggled to reach financial close, and several have been postponed or abandoned, but Japanese industrial companies are hungry for the technology because of the lack of options at home.

The demonstration project has been commissioned by Japanese research and development agency New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

It is backed by the Green Innovation (GI) Fund, an approximately $28 billion fund aimed at helping Japan achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Eneos will work in partnership with other big Japanese corporates such as Chiyoda Corporation, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Toppan and AGC, as well as Brisbane companies GPA and GRPS.