The ultimate question of any energy commodity is: “TO DRILL OR NOT TO DRILL?”
Before making this extremely important decision, the license holder has to to de-risk their operations by ticking as many boxes as possible. Only then, the funds are to be accrued and the arrangements are to be made for selecting a contractor and planning the exploration/production drilling campaign.
After the hydrogen conducting structure is identified and assessed by means of Geophysics, it becomes crucial to penetrate it below the depth of dissipation a.k.a. the “discharge zone”, where the lithostatic pressure drops and a hydrogen degassing stream breaks into a “funnel” of dispersed flows.
Proposed hydrogen resources development scenario. Modified from http://hydrogen-future.com
Depending on the results of the first appraisal or exploration well, the development strategy may continue following one of possible scenarios below:
| Drilling deep wells (Nebraska scenario) | Shallow wells (Mali scenario) |
| Substantial investment | Modest investment |
| Large corporate consumers and urbanistic conglomerates | Local consumers: farmers, communities, townships, etc. |
| Local and International markets – Offtake | Local market – Autonomous Energy? |