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To achieve net zero emissions in a close future, hydrogen (H2) has the potential to be a major contributor for the energy transition. Natural or white hydrogen which is naturally sourced in the Earth’s crust by various geological process may be the cheapest to produce and is now considered as a potential game changer. If discoveries in Mali and more recently in Australia (GoldHydrogen) demonstrated that natural hydrogen’s reservoirs exist, the communicated volumes need to be taken with caution and the scalable commercial quantities are yet to be proven.
When screening for natural H2 prospects, geological risk and success volumes must be evaluated, as done in the exploration for oil and gas. In the following sections we discuss some of the similarities and differences between natural H2 and oil and gas prospects. We also present the risk and volume assessment of the Sohano Prospect in the Western Pyrenees (France) as a case where standard oil and gas prospect evaluation workflows can be applied to H2 assessments, with a few modifications and additions.