Workshop 7

Description

There are several types of plays for natural hydrogen exploration which appear to be very similar to those the oil and gas industry is used to. These include cases where there is a functioning trap, due to effective top seals. Examples can be found in pre-salt traps where hydrogen has been documented as part of existing hydrocarbon accumulations (examples: Dnieper-Donets Basin, Ukraine, and Amadeus Basin, Australia). Another, somewhat unusual trapping has been documented in the first hydrogen field discovery in Mali where the top seal is provided by a set of fractured dolerite dykes saturated with water. In these cases, one expects finite hydrogen resources in place and the critical question becomes the recharge rate for commercial production.

Another group of natural hydrogen targets revolve around mega-seeps (fairy circles, e.g. East European Craton) and smaller, fault-controlled seepages to the surface (e.g. French Pyrenees). These plays have no traps, no seals and, therefore, they do not find a proper analogue in oil and gas exploration workflows. Yet, because these seeps correspond to ongoing charge in a dynamic, truly renewable system, if they represent a steady-state process, one could expect infinite resources via a low-flux hydrogen “farming” process. For commercial hydrogen production in this case, therefore, a totally new technological approach will be required, not existing in the hydrocarbon industry at all.

This workshop is intended to capture the state-of-the-art for hydrogen exploration discussing various case studies, including methodologies applied and technologies involved. Since gold hydrogen exploration is really in its infancy worldwide, this workshop aims to promote collective thinking about the possible ways forward.