ACWA Power has appointed global energy services group, Kent, as Owner’s Engineer for the Yanbu Green Hydrogen Hub, a flagship facility set to become one of the world’s largest integrated green hydrogen and ammonia export projects.
Located in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, the hub will integrate renewable power generation, desalination, electrolysis, ammonia production and an export terminal.
At full scale, it is designed to produce up to 400,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen a year, converted into more than 2.2 million tonnes of green ammonia for international markets. With over 4 gigawatts of electrolysis capacity, the site is expected to be almost twice the size of the NEOM Green Hydrogen Project.
Kent will provide independent oversight during the front-end engineering design (FEED) phase, being delivered by a joint venture between Técnicas Reunidas and Sinopec.
Its responsibilities include ensuring design compliance with international standards, reviewing safety and constructability, coordinating technical integration across multiple workstreams and advising on risk management ahead of the engineering, procurement and construction stage.
John Gilley, Kent’s chief executive, said the appointment underscored the company’s expertise in managing large-scale energy projects. “Our role as Owner’s Engineer allows us to help lay the foundations for safe, scalable and sustainable hydrogen infrastructure,” he said.
Marco Arcelli, ACWA Power’s chief executive, described the Yanbu project as a “monumental step forward” in Saudi Arabia’s green hydrogen ambitions under Vision 2030, adding that the partnership with Kent would ensure “world-class technical oversight” as the project moves towards final investment decision.
The project is a centrepiece of the kingdom’s clean energy transition and builds on Kent’s expanding portfolio of energy transition contracts across the Middle East.
