Port of Antwerp-Bruges The Port of Antwerp-Bruges is home to one of Europe’s largest petrochemical and logistics hubs and a leader for low-carbon transition in heavy industry. Its ambitious decarbonization vision is anchored in cluster-scale CO2 T&S, hydrogen and ammonia infrastructure. Port of Antwerp-Bruges demonstrates both the opportunity created when combining public-private financing, new regulation and network economics across industrial players. Major projects, including the Antwerp@C CO2 network and the Vopak Energy Park, showcase how collective demand and layered financing strategies can help to realize ambitious climate and industrial goals. Cluster structure and governance As the body overseeing the entire cluster, the Port Authority plays a role as both overall cluster administrator and a project administrator for key infrastructure projects. The authority plays a particularly important role orchestrating common infrastructure, convening stakeholders and enabling financing – especially for major shared assets such as pipelines and import/export terminals. Separate joint ventures (e.g. Kairos@C) build specific links in the regional value chain. The Port Authority maintains oversight through majority ownership of key organizations such as Pipelink (80% stake), coordination of a centralized funding desk for external financing support and provision of land in concession for private organizations. Such an approach allows for more efficient and effective communication between private organizations operating in the cluster and facilitates a more coordinated approach to engagement with external funding agencies such as the European Commission. Financing models and structures Antwerp@C is a consortium of eight partners, coordinated by the Port Authority. The project aims to connect six large emitters to liquefaction and export facilities, with the port supporting land and regulatory enablement and partners investing development capital. In the first phase, Kairos@C, BASF and Air Liquide will connect CO2 emissions from five of their plants55 (one ammonia, two hydrogen plants and two ethylene oxide plants). FID for Kairos@C is currently on hold, with BASF noting the need for “increased government support”,56 in particular, a guarantee of more direct financial support when the project reaches its operational stage. Despite this, key to project development has been the installation of the “CO2 backbone”. This pipeline network, currently under construction, is controlled by Fluxys c-grid Antwerp, a JV between Fluxys (70% stake), Pipelink (20% stake) and Air-Liquide (10% stake).57 With Pipelink being majority owned by Port of Antwerp-Bruges, the authority can ensure that infrastructure is appropriate for the various emitters that could connect. Being a public entity, the authority can accept lower returns given the public incentives also being served. In addition to Porthos, Vopak Energy Park is a notable example of industrial repurposing to accelerate industrial transition. In 2023, global infrastructure provider Vopak acquired a former refinery, developing it into a green energy and chemicals hub with deep-sea, river, pipeline and rail access. The site is being configured for new hydrogen, ammonia and methanol terminals and is supported by strategic collaboration with the Port Authority and proximity to existing cluster infrastructure. For example, A.P . Møller Capital has already committed to a €1.5 billion equity investment into subsidiary company Vioneo.58 Vioneo will build a 300,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) fossil-free polypropylene and polyethylene plant at Vopak Energy Park Antwerp (targeting FID in 2025).59 This world-first facility will use green methanol (from biomass/low- carbon hydrogen) as feedstock and renewable power, cutting approximately 1.5 MtCO2/year. Building on these initiatives, the Port of Antwerp is also advancing another milestone project: ARCaDE. Though in the earlier stages, ARCaDE (Antwerp Refinery Carbon Capture and DeNOx) aims to be the “first large-scale CCS, retrofitted on hard to abate process emissions in an EU refinery”.60 TotalEnergies has committed €400 million to the project, which will see its Antwerp Refinery capturing CO2 from the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit and transported (via Antwerp@C export infrastructure) to Rotterdam for storage using Hybrid LNG barges.61 The initiative has secured substantial backing from the EU Innovation Fund, with a €228 million grant awarded to help accelerate the project’s implementation and de-risk early-stage development. FID is expected by the end of 2027.62 From Blueprint to Reality: A Stronger Business Case for Shared Energy Infrastructure 39

From Blueprint to Reality 2026