The ultimate question of any energy commodity is: “TO DRILL OR NOT TO DRILL?”
Before making this extremely important decision, the entity needs to get as many boxes ticked as possible. Only then, the funds are to be accrued and 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 (see above), it becomes crucial to penetrate it below the depth of dissipation a.k.a. “discharge zone”, where lithostatic pressure drops and hydrogen degassing stream breaks into a “funnel” of dis-concentrated flows.
Proposed hydrogen resources development scenario. Modified from http://hydrogen-future.com
Depending on the results of the first (exploration) well, the development strategy may continue following one of possible scenarios:
| Drilling deep wells (Nebraska type) | Shallow wells (Mali type) |
| 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? |