From staff reports Three months after Australian-based Woodside Energy told Ardmore city leaders their plan for a hydrogen energy plant was on hold, and strongly hinted it could be cancelled, the firm revealed the project indeed is dead.
Woodside Energy announced its H2OK project in 2021, with plans to bring liquid hydrogen production to Ardmore.
In April the company indicated the project might not proceed. The decision was blamed on of a lack of a market demand as well as challenges tied to the Trump administration's focus on nonrenewable energy sources like oil, gas and coal.
Ardmore officials said that while the outcome is disappointing, they are glad to have clarity early, which gives them time to plan the next steps.
It had been hoped that the hydrogen facility could help provide employment to some of the workers terminated by Michelin, which was Carter County's largest employer until it decided to shut down its Ardmore plant.
Closure of the passenger-tire manufacturing plant, which has been in operation since 1950 and was the largest employer in Ardmore, will affect nearly 1,400 people, at a minimum.
Michelin North America announced in late 2023 that the first wave of staffing reductions would occur in mid-2024 as the company gradually winds down production. The company said it planned to continue reducing staff through 2025 and completely discontinue tire production this year.
“The last tire at the plant is going to roll off sometime in late September, early October,” Ardmore Development Authority executive Andrea Anderson announced in June.