TOWN gas supplier City Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Infrastructure Trust, : A7RU 0%and Gentari – the renewable energy arm of Petronas, will conduct a 12-month study on the feasibility of building a pipeline from Malaysia to Singapore.

On Tuesday (Oct 24), City Energy and Gentari said they will “collectively determine the way forward” in executing a front-end engineering design agreement, after the study concludes.

The joint feasibility agreement comes after both parties inked a memorandum of understanding in April this year to explore importing hydrogen from Malaysia to Singapore.

Since 1991, Singapore has been importing natural gas from Malaysia through the 2,623 km Peninsular Gas Utilisation Pipeline, which is owned and operated by Gentari’s sister company, Petronas Gas.

Studying the feasibility of building a hydrogen pipeline from Malaysia to Singapore would accelerate the development of clean hydrogen through cross-border infrastructure, said Gentari’s chief hydrogen officer Michele Azalbert.

Perry Ong, chief executive of City Energy, said: “This joint feasibility study with Gentari underscores our commitment to providing sustainable energy to households and businesses for generations to come, and to supporting Singapore’s efforts to reduce emissions and address climate change.”

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Hydrogen is the largest component in town gas produced at City Energy’s Senoko Gasworks plant in northern Singapore, which also makes City Energy one of the largest last-mile distributors of hydrogen in the Republic.

Under the partnership between City Energy and Gentari, any pipeline to be established by the parties will supply hydrogen into the Senoko Gasworks plant.

Ong said the hydrogen imported via the potentially-resultant pipeline is expected to replace part of City Energy’s hydrogen demand and, in the process, create new pathways to supply energy to homes, businesses and industries.

“Together (with Gentari), we are not just building a hydrogen pipeline; we are constructing a bridge to a low-carbon future,” he added.

In a separate announcement, Sembcorp Utilities also announced on Tuesday that it had signed a joint development study agreement with Indonesian utility company PT PLN (Persero) to explore the feasibility of green hydrogen production in Indonesia for export to Singapore.

The company said that the facility could potentially produce up to 100,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per annum in Indonesia using locally sourced renewable energy.

The hydrogen produced will then be exported via sub-sea pipeline to Singapore.

The project is expected to be Indonesia’s first green hydrogen export to Singapore. 

“Through this partnership with PT PLN (Persero), we endeavour to co-develop a viable low-carbon hydrogen supply chain in Asean that will diversify energy sources for both countries,” said Wong Kim Yin, group president and CEO of Sembcorp Industries.

Both projects are expected to advance Singapore towards its net-zero targets by 2050.

Shares in Sembcorp Industries : U96 0% closed up 0.4 per cent, or S$0.02 higher, at S$4.60, while Keppel Infrastructure Trust’s units finished up 1.2 per cent, or S$0.005, at S$0.44.