The ultimate question of any subsurface energy project is: “TO DRILL OR NOT TO DRILL?”
Before making this extremely important decision, a license holder has to de-risk their operations by ticking as many boxes in the project plan 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 a hydrogen conducting structure is identified and assessed by means of Geophysics, it becomes crucial to penetrate it below the depth of dissipation known under the name of the “discharge zone”, where lithostatic pressure drops enough for a hydrogen degassing stream to break into a “funnel” of dispersed flows.
Proposed hydrogen resources development scenario. Modified from http://hydrogen-future.com
Depending on the results of the first exploration well followed by the Resources Assessment, the development strategy may continue following one of the possible scenarios below:
| Deep wells (Nebraska scenario) | Shallow wells (Mali scenario) |
| Substantial investment | Modest investment |
| Large corporate consumers and urbanistic conglomerates | Local consumers: farmers, communities, townships, etc. |
| Both local and International markets – Offtake | Local market – Autonomous Energy? |