One of the United States’ most credible broadcasters has named 2025 as a pivotal year for natural hydrogen exploration.
American business news channel CNBC has highlighted the opportunities offered by gold hydrogen in a new feature, pointing out the rapid growth in interest being shown by venture capitalists, mining and oil companies.
‘‘It comes as buzz continues to build over the potential for a resource that advocates say could radically reshape the global energy landscape,’’ the article says.
Exploration backers included mining giants Rio Tinto and Fortescue, Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom, the venture capital arm of British oil giant BP and Bill Gates’ clean tech investment fund Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
Minh Khoi Le, head of hydrogen research at Rystad Energy, said: “I guess last year was the year that things got really interesting for the natural hydrogen space because that’s when many companies started to plan drilling campaigns, extraction testing and we started to see some major players start to get involved as well.
“Now, we are starting to see companies getting investment, so they have money to fund their drilling campaigns. So, if we are to get an answer of whether this thing will work, we’ll get to that conclusion a bit faster this year,” Le said.
Eric Toone, chief technology officer at Breakthrough Energy, said the fund had backed projects in France and the US because the promise of natural hydrogen is such that it “could unlock a new era of clean, homegrown energy.”
“If we have enough hydrogen and it’s cheap enough, we can do almost anything. We can use it to make metals, make fuels, you could even make food, and all with far fewer emissions than conventional approaches,” Toone told CNBC.
The article covered Australia’s HyTerra getting backing of $21.9 million from Fortescue. A Fortescue spokesperson described the technology as a “promising opportunity” to accelerate industrial decarbonization.
Full article here.
Just this week Hyterra confirmed it had found hydrogen at concentrations of up to 96.1% in an early drill campaign in Kansas, US.
It said mud gas log readings at various depths indicated the presence of a hydrogen play.
Elevated helium readings were also found and they were now planning downhole sampling and gas monitoring. ASX release here.