Letter on hydrogen: Gold rush

Excitement over natural hydrogen is building, but its potential to contribute meaningfully to global supply is unclear

Significant volumes of natural hydrogen could be sitting in the subsurface waiting to be extracted at lower costs than even the most competitive electrolytic or natural gas-based  projects currently under development. Or, in hydrogen sector parlance, gold could be better than green or blue. That is the claim of a growing number of companies exploring for natural (gold) hydrogen around the world with an eye on developing supply to feed the global decarbonisation project. Production at under $1/kg has been mooted, though that should be seen in the context of the cost of exploration and drilling, which makes direct comparisons with green hydrogen costs difficult. At least six projects are at th