RIYADH: Cepsa, the Spanish oil and gas company, which is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi’s strategic investment fund Mubadala, is in talks with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Masdar, on potential co-investments and partnerships in green hydrogen projects. In an interview with a UAE’s daily, Cepsa CEO, Maarten Wetselaar, said that potential collaboration can take the form of joint investments in developing the entire hydrogen value chain from the Middle East to Europe and North Africa. Cepsa is also considering building demand and infrastructure in Spain and other parts of Europe, as ADNOC will completely focus on green hydrogen projects, the CEO added. $11bn green hydrogen project in Australia Japan’s Osaka Gas Co. Ltd. said on Tuesday it will provide technical support for a $10.75 billion green hydrogen project in the Australian outback, and will consider potential investment in future. The Desert Bloom Hydrogen project, backed by Singapore-based Sanguine Impact Investment Group, will use a unique technology to suck water out of the air and solar power to split the water to make green hydrogen — hydrogen generated by renewable energy — in the Northern Territory’s desert. Osaka Gas has agreed to contribute project management, engineering and technical support for the project, manage hydrogen sales and negotiate with equipment manufacturers, the project’s developer, Aqua Aerem, said. “We may invest in the project in the future, but there is no concrete investment plan from our end now,” a spokesperson for the Japanese utility said, adding it will provide technical support by leveraging its expertise in gas production and hydrogen-related businesses. Ukrainian energy firms sue Russia A coalition of Ukrainian companies wants a US federal court to order Russia to pay a nearly $35 million foreign judgment, with the hope they can eventually access some of the country’s assets in the US. The 11 companies said on Saturday in a petition in Washington, D.C., to the federal court, that they operated gas stations and an office in Crimea that were seized by Russia in 2014. Swiss arbitrators awarded them $34.5 million in 2019, according to court papers. A lawyer for the companies, James Boykin, said the freezing of Russian assets as part of recent US sanctions could offer a chance for his clients to collect. “If funds do get made available to people who suffered from Russian aggression, I don’t see why Crimea and people who lost out following the annexation would be excluded,” he said. The petition said Russian forces seized and looted petrol stations owned by the companies because Ukrainian tycoon and former government official, Igor Kolomoisky, a part-owner of petitioner Sabil, was a Kremlin critic. Kolomoisky was sanctioned by the US in 2021 for alleged corruption. (With inputs from Reuters)