DUBAI, July 16 (Reuters) - Saudi oil giant Aramco

has signed final agreements to buy 50% of the blue

hydrogen industrial gases business of Air Products Qudra (APQ),

it said on Tuesday, continuing the kingdom's drive to become a

major hydrogen producer.

Financial details of the transaction for Blue Hydrogen

Industrial Gases Company (BHIG) were not disclosed, but Aramco

said the deal includes options for it to buy hydrogen and

nitrogen.

APQ is a joint venture between U.S. industrial gases

producer Air Products and Qudra Energy, a Saudi start-up set up

in 2017.

Saudi Arabia, as well as some of its neighbours, are making

big bets on hydrogen, spending billions of dollars to get a head

start in the race to become a top supplier of what they see as a

fuel of the future.

The kingdom wants to be the world's biggest supplier of

hydrogen, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman

al-Saud said in 2021.

The push is part of a vast economic agenda to cut the top

oil exporter's reliance on crude, spearheaded by its sovereign

wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Saudi Arabia had already signed off on an $8.4 billion green

hydrogen plant being built by NEOM Green Hydrogen Company, a

joint venture between Air Products, ACWA Power and NEOM. PIF

fully owns NEOM, a planned futuristic city in the desert, and

has a 44.16% stake in ACWA Power.