Explain the main generation mechanisms proposed for natural hydrogen, including serpentinisation, radiolysis and deep mantle degassing.
Oil, Gas & Energy
Natural Hydrogen Exploration and Subsurface Resource Assessment
Learn to screen basins for natural hydrogen potential, design surface seep surveys, adapt petroleum system concepts to hydrogen and appraise wells with appropriate resource uncertainty.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Natural hydrogen exploration is moving from scattered surface curiosities to a genuine subsurface play, but the discipline still borrows most of its methods from petroleum exploration without a settled playbook of its own. This course works through the proposed generation mechanisms for natural hydrogen — serpentinisation, radiolysis, deep mantle degassing — and the global occurrences that serve as analogues for new exploration targets, before turning to surface seep survey design combining soil gas sampling, remote sensing and structural mapping. Participants adapt petroleum system concepts of generation, migration, trap and seal into a hydrogen play model, plan an exploration well that addresses casing, embrittlement and safety considerations specific to hydrogen, and interpret limited well test data with appropriate caution given how few comparable tests exist worldwide. The course closes with resource classification and reporting methods suited to a sector still building its evidence base. Delivered through case material drawn from documented natural hydrogen occurrences, the course leaves participants able to screen, survey and appraise a natural hydrogen prospect realistically.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Screen a basin or craton for natural hydrogen potential using analogues to established seep and well discovery locations.
Design a surface seep survey that combines soil gas sampling, remote sensing and structural mapping to identify exploration targets.
Adapt petroleum system concepts of generation, migration, trap and seal to build a natural hydrogen play model.
Plan a natural hydrogen exploration well that addresses gas sampling, casing and safety considerations specific to hydrogen.
Assess reservoir and flow characteristics from limited well test data given the immaturity of natural hydrogen appraisal methods.
Communicate natural hydrogen resource estimates with appropriate uncertainty given the early stage of global exploration experience.
Who Should Attend
Exploration geologists and geochemists evaluating natural hydrogen potential in sedimentary basins or cratonic settings.
Technical staff at junior exploration companies entering the emerging natural hydrogen sector.
Investors and analysts assessing the credibility of natural hydrogen exploration claims and resource estimates.
Government geological survey staff mapping national natural hydrogen potential and licensing frameworks.
Reservoir engineers adapting well testing and flow assessment methods to a gas with unfamiliar subsurface behaviour.
Environmental and permitting specialists preparing exploration approvals for a resource with limited regulatory precedent.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Origins and Generation Mechanisms of Natural Hydrogen
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1How Natural Hydrogen Forms
- Explain serpentinisation of iron-rich ultramafic rocks as a leading mechanism for natural hydrogen generation.
- Assess radiolysis of water by radioactive minerals as a generation mechanism relevant to certain basement and basin settings.
- Consider deep mantle degassing and its contribution to natural hydrogen seeps in specific tectonic settings.
- Compare generation rates and timescales implied by each mechanism against what field observations of seeps suggest.
Session 2Global Occurrences and Analogues
- Review documented natural hydrogen occurrences and their geological settings as analogues for new exploration targets.
- Identify structural and stratigraphic settings, such as cratonic basins and fracture zones, associated with known discoveries.
- Distinguish continuously replenishing hydrogen seeps from potentially depleting accumulations based on observed behaviour.
- Assess what limited public well and seep data reveal about the scale of individual natural hydrogen systems.
02Surface Exploration and Play Concept Development
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Designing a Surface Seep Survey
- Combine soil gas sampling, fairy circle or vegetation anomaly mapping and remote sensing to locate candidate seep areas.
- Design a sampling grid and analytical method that reliably distinguishes hydrogen anomalies from background noise.
- Integrate structural mapping to identify faults and fracture networks that may focus hydrogen migration to surface.
- Prioritise follow-up targets based on seep intensity, structural setting and access for further investigation.
Session 2Adapting Petroleum System Concepts to Hydrogen
- Translate generation, migration, trap and seal concepts from petroleum systems into a natural hydrogen play model.
- Assess candidate seal lithologies for their ability to retain a small, highly diffusive hydrogen molecule over geological time.
- Identify trap geometries most likely to accumulate hydrogen given its buoyancy and diffusivity relative to methane.
- Rank prospects using a play-based risking approach adapted from petroleum exploration to reflect hydrogen-specific uncertainties.
03Subsurface Assessment and Well Planning
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Subsurface Data Integration
- Integrate available seismic, well log and legacy petroleum exploration data to refine natural hydrogen prospect models.
- Reinterpret legacy gas shows in old petroleum wells that may indicate previously unrecognised hydrogen presence.
- Apply geochemical fingerprinting to distinguish hydrogen of different generation origins within the same basin.
- Assess data gaps that materially affect confidence in a natural hydrogen prospect before committing to drilling.
Session 2Planning an Exploration Well
- Design casing, cementing and material selection choices that account for hydrogen embrittlement risk in well construction.
- Plan gas sampling and downhole monitoring specific to detecting and quantifying hydrogen alongside other gases.
- Incorporate safety controls for a well that may encounter flammable hydrogen concentrations during drilling and testing.
- Sequence well objectives so early results inform whether to continue to full evaluation or suspend the well.
04Testing, Resource Assessment and Communication
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Well Testing and Flow Assessment
- Adapt conventional well test design to the safety and measurement challenges specific to producing natural hydrogen.
- Interpret flow and pressure data cautiously given the limited history of comparable natural hydrogen well tests.
- Distinguish transient seep-like flow behaviour from evidence of a genuinely accumulated, produceable resource.
- Assess reservoir connectivity and potential replenishment rate implied by extended well test or monitoring data.
Session 2Resource Classification and Reporting
- Apply appropriate caution and disclosed uncertainty when classifying natural hydrogen resource estimates given the sector's early stage.
- Communicate exploration results to investors and regulators in a way that distinguishes confirmed flow from inferred potential.
- Track emerging industry and regulatory guidance on natural hydrogen resource classification as the sector matures.
- Build an exploration programme that sequences further appraisal steps based on what each well or survey confirms or rules out.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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