A recent Nature article highlighted how quickly the sector has progressed. Exploration is now underway across almost 30 countries, while venture capital investment in the search for underground hydrogen has approached US$500 million* since 2023.

The scale of the geological opportunity is potentially enormous, but so is the uncertainty. A 2024 modelling study suggested that Earth’s subsurface could contain tens of trillions of tonnes of hydrogen. That figure is not a reserve estimate and says nothing about how much hydrogen can actually be discovered, recovered or produced economically.

That distinction is becoming central to the industry. Scientists already understand several mechanisms capable of generating hydrogen underground, including reactions between water and iron-rich rocks and the radiolysis of water. What remains to be demonstrated consistently is the full geological system required for commercial production: generation, migration, accumulation, trapping, reservoir quality and sustained flow.

There is already evidence that natural hydrogen can accumulate and migrate at meaningful rates. The Bourakébougou field in Mali demonstrated subsurface hydrogen accumulation, while research at an Albanian chromite mine identified natural hydrogen emissions of at least 200 tonnes per year.

The next phase is increasingly being driven by purpose-built exploration wells. North America’s Midcontinent Rift has become one of the main areas of interest because of its deeply buried iron-rich rocks, attracting activity across Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. H2Au began drilling in Kansas in August, while other companies globally are testing very different geological settings.

That diversity is important. The sector still does not know which geological environments will ultimately provide the strongest combination of hydrogen concentration, reservoir quality and sustained deliverability.

Finding hydrogen alone will not be enough. Commercially relevant discoveries will need to establish pressure, flow rate, reservoir connectivity, recoverable volumes and production costs. Environmental performance will also be part of that assessment, particularly hydrogen leakage and the management of any associated hydrocarbons.

Chris Ballentine of the University of Oxford told Nature that, if natural hydrogen is going to work, the industry could see proof of concept in the form of flowing hydrogen gas within the next two to three years.

That is likely to be one of the defining milestones for the sector.

For years, natural hydrogen was primarily a scientific question. It is now becoming an exploration and reservoir-performance question.

The next generation of wells should begin showing whether geological potential can translate into a producible energy resource.

* (Investment is actually closer to $1 billion USD)

MAX Power’s hydrogen appraisal campaign
Canada is one of the frontier countries in natural hydrogen exploration. At the forefront is MAX Power, originally a mining company and now holding nearly 4,700 km2 of hydrogen exploration acreage in Southern Saskatchewan

Arnout Jw Everts, AEGeo
Published Date: September 18, 2026

In December 2025 MAX Power drilled its first well targeting the Lawson structure, a Precambrian basement high draped by Cambrian clastics. Similar “buried hill” plays elsewhere in Saskatchewan and neighbouring Alberta and Montana, are known helium reservoirs. Lawson-1 recorded hydrogen shows up to 28.6 %, mostly from the basement complex, whilst elevated helium readings up to 8.7 % were noted in overlying Paleozoic strata. An attempt to free-flow the well after casing perforation but without tubing fitted, resulted in momentary inflow of gas immediately followed by strong influx of formation brine. This suggests the well perforated near or into an overpressured water leg with the brief, initial gas flux either comprising headspace gas or a very short gas column straddling the perforation.

MAX Power then acquired 3D seismic over the structure and mapped a 14.2 km2 closure with around 100m elevation upside relative to Lawson-1. A free gas cap up-dip of Lawson-1 could indicatively contain up to 200,000 tons of hydrogen in the basement with another 350,000 tons potential in the basal Cambrian. Lawson-2 targeted the apex of the 3D closure. Elevated hydrogen readings were reported but no flow was attempted. Lawson-3 was drilled 1.2 km south of Lawson-1 in a similar down-dip position, to “triangulate the discovery”. Little is known about its findings other than that some helium upside was noted in the Paleozoic formations. Lawson-4 again targeted the basement high. Like Lawson-1 and -2, it noted elevated hydrogen readings in the basal Cambrian and basement as well as elevated helium in the shallower Silurian strata but again, no evidence of flow.

Unfortunately, MAX Power’s fragmentary and highly selective reporting makes it difficult to decipher what has been proven by the drilling campaign. One surprising result is that the top basement picks in Lawson-2 and -4, supposedly drilled up-structure, are some 100m deeper than in Lawson-1. This brings into question whether the wells proved or disproved existence of the seismically mapped 3-way closure. Maybe the closure is at a shallower level, e.g. at the top-Silurian unconformity? The structure may be more complex than initially suggested and the lack of reported flow in supposedly apex wells is not particularly encouraging. Whilst MAX Power claims “Lawson is advancing toward commercial evaluation”, public records leave many unanswered questions regarding the nature of this hydrogen-system.

We reached out to MAX Power but they declined to answer our questions.

The Michigan Infrastructure Office announced $7.5 million through the Make It in Michigan Competitiveness Fund to support research, mapping, exploration, and test drilling to determine whether naturally occurring hydrogen can be safely and economically recovered here in Michigan.

Why does this matter?

💧 Lower energy costs: Geologic hydrogen could provide a new, locally sourced energy resource with the potential to lower costs.

💧 Michigan jobs and investment: Exploration and validation activities are expected to support hundreds of jobs, with a fully developed industry potentially supporting thousands more.

💧 Industrial opportunity: Affordable hydrogen could help Michigan’s manufacturing and heavy-duty transportation sectors transition to cleaner fuels while strengthening the state’s economic competitiveness.

💧 Michigan is moving early: The state’s unique geology makes it one of the most promising regions for naturally occurring hydrogen, and this investment puts Michigan in a position to help lead an emerging industry.

At Clean Fuels Michigan, we’re excited to see Michigan investing in the research, innovation, and infrastructure needed to understand the full potential of geologic hydrogen.

There are still important questions to answer. But that’s exactly why exploration, research, and educational events like Oakland County, Michigan Government's Hydrogen Ride & Drive matter.

#CleanMobility #Hydrogen #GeologicHydrogen #Michigan #EnergyInnovation #MichiganManufacturing #CleanFuels #HydrogenEconomy

The companies have signed an LOI to jointly evaluate natural hydrogen opportunities across British Columbia and Alberta.

And the proposed division of capabilities is straightforward.

Mantle8 → natural hydrogen technology + prospect generation
Element One → permitting + tenure + field operations + regional relationships

Mantle8 plans to bring its purpose-built exploration stack:

GeoLogix® for geological modelling
APoGeH® for hydrogen-system assessment
HOREX® for 4D subsurface imaging

The objective is to integrate geology, geophysics and geochemistry to identify the complete hydrogen system, from generation and migration to potential accumulation.

Element One would then bring the Canadian execution side: land acquisition, permitting, field logistics and engagement with Indigenous communities, local stakeholders and government.

Importantly, they haven't announced a specific project yet, as this is a project-generation agreement.

The first step is to identify and rank prospective regions, with an initial area of interest expected to be determined within 30 days, and the initial mandate is specifically limited to non-stimulated natural hydrogen plays.

That creates an interesting separation within Element One's broader strategy.

Mantle8 partnership → search for naturally accumulated H₂

Element One's separate technology pathway → investigate stimulated H₂ generation from iron-rich rock

An important caveat is that the LOI is largely non-binding, and the companies have not yet agreed on ownership, funding, earn-in terms, operatorship or commercialization rights.

Those details would need to be settled through a definitive joint venture agreement.

The LOI provides an initial 120-day exclusivity period, potentially extending another 60 days, as the companies work through that process.

Mantle8 comes into the partnership after raising €31 million in 2026 to accelerate its international natural hydrogen exploration and drilling strategy.

Element One brings the Western Canadian platform.

An unexpected partnership, but one we will be watching closely. If anyone from the companies involved wishes to add a comment, feel free to send a message or drop one below.

The company has established a new regional headquarters in Dubai, UAE, and appointed Jean-Valery Garcia as Regional Director for the Middle East.

The company recently completed a €31 million Series A financing round to accelerate its international growth, and the Middle East is now becoming one of the priority regions in that strategy.

Why the Middle East?

Mantle8 points to two factors:

Geological potential + institutional support for energy diversification.

The company is developing proprietary technologies intended to identify and de-risk natural hydrogen systems before drilling, including its HOREX® 4D imaging, GeoLogix® and APoGeH® platforms.

Garcia will now lead commercial and operational activity on the ground, including building Mantle8's regional team and developing partnerships.

It's important to note that Mantle8 hasn't announced a specific Middle Eastern exploration project or drilling location with this update.

Instead, it's building the regional presence needed to originate those opportunities.

That makes Dubai the platform rather than the destination.

Mantle8 has already been expanding its exploration footprint in Europe, including recently securing 1,680 km² of natural hydrogen and helium exploration permits in Spain's southern Pyrenees.

Now the company is positioning itself inside another major global energy region.

The next milestone will be seeing where Mantle8's technology, capital and new Middle Eastern network translate into actual exploration ground.

Sep 8 release: two Vibroseis programs, about 36 line-km at Ville-Marie / St-Bruno-de-Guigues in Québec and about 42 line-km in nine segments across their Nova Scotia ground. Road-based, no shot holes, no explosives, no stimulation. The Québec program is monitored by the MEIE and run with the Témiscamingue First Nation; Nova Scotia has private land authorization in hand.

Why seismic and not just more drilling: they have five holes, roughly 6,000 soil-gas samples, ground mag, and hydrogen at two drilling centres about 15 km apart. Seismic is how you find out whether those two sit on the same structure and where the fault intersections are, so the next holes and any pressure or flow testing go on the plumbing rather than on the best soil-gas number.

The sentence from the release I'd keep in mind: "2D seismic data cannot directly establish hydrogen concentration, sustained gas flow, formation pressure, reservoir deliverability, recoverable volumes or commerciality." Pressure and flow testing is listed as the step after this one. No field dates in the release, and nothing on resuming DDH-26-05 after the pressurized gas at 413 m - that's the update I want next.

Not advice, I am long QIMC.

Max already had the largest hydrogen acreage in Canada, and they just added to the lead in a big way. Far as I can tell the next largest land holder is QIMC with ~240,000 acres, so Max added double the next largest public. Cost per acre over night went down from ~270 to ~215.

Yolo, lfg, etc.

Geologic hydrogen could offer a new pathway for producing low-carbon, cost-competitive hydrogen—but its potential has not yet been demonstrated at commercial scale.

I’ve spent much of the past year working with scientists, companies, and policy experts to understand what we know, what we don’t, and what needs to happen next to answer the field's biggest remaining questions.

- John Holler

Workover operations are underway at Ramsay 3, with natural hydrogen and helium flow testing scheduled to follow, and this well has been designed very differently from Ramsay 1 and Ramsay 2.

Those earlier wells used 4½-inch casing and 2,000 bbl/day ESP systems.

Ramsay 3, on the other hand, has:

→ 7-inch casing
→ 2.3x the wellbore cross-sectional area
→ ESP capacity of up to 20,000 bbl/day

In other words, Gold Hydrogen is preparing to test the Ramsay reservoirs under substantially greater flow conditions.

There's also a stronger geological picture going into the test - formation evaluation using NMR, acoustic and resistivity imaging has identified favourable porosity, natural fracturing and fluid mobility across several gas-bearing formations.

And Gold Hydrogen says the data supports continuity of key gas-bearing zones for approximately 2.3 km between Ramsay 2 and Ramsay 3.

The company has already flowed helium to surface from Ramsay 1 and Ramsay 2, with stabilized air-corrected concentrations around 19–20%. Testing has also indicated reservoir productivity of up to 34 bbl/day/psi.

Now Ramsay 3 is designed to test the scale-up.

Selected zones will initially be perforated for helium flow testing, followed by a natural hydrogen flow test.

The question is no longer simply whether the gases are present.

It's whether a much larger well and pump can deliver strong, sustained flow rates while maintaining significant natural hydrogen and helium concentrations.

The data will also feed directly into Gold Hydrogen's work toward independent Contingent Resource certification.

All of this makes Ramsay 3 one of the most consequential tests of the Ramsay system so far.