Natural hydrogen: understanding today’s market opportunities
January 28th, 2026 – Hyvolution Paris
Below is the full summary of the roundtable “Natural hydrogen: understanding today’s market opportunities”, presented at Hyvolution Paris 2026.
Context and Challenges
Natural hydrogen is introduced as a potentially transformative, yet still emerging source of low‑carbon energy. The geological formation, migration and trapping mechanisms must be clearly understood before it can be considered scalable.
The discussion frames a core challenge: how to identify, measure and prove the existence of economically viable accumulations, using surface detection, subsurface imaging, and dedicated hydrogen sensors.
A central issue is whether the sector can move faster than oil & gas exploration, leveraging existing geological data, advanced modelling and AI, while still acknowledging the scientific uncertainties around generation processes, reactivity and subsurface behaviour.
Perspective
Natural hydrogen is presented as a new subsurface pillar for decarbonisation and energy sovereignty, with a credible path to scale, if exploration can rapidly convert geological signals into proved resources.
Unlike early oil & gas, the sector could shorten the learning curve by leveraging existing subsurface data and applying modern sensing, modelling and AI: but it remains an exploration‑driven story, where value creation depends on progressively reducing geological uncertainty before drilling.
Main messages
1. Natural hydrogen is becoming a credible exploration domain, built on known subsurface mechanics and faster‑than‑before learning cycles
Benoît Hauville explains the core formation path and the exploration logic: upward migration, potential trapping in reservoirs, and detection via seeps, water, sampling, and geophysics.
Yannick Peysson argues the science and tooling make this fundamentally faster than early oil & gas: advanced measurement systems, modelling, existing geological data and AI enable workflows that can be adapted quickly to hydrogen.
2. Cost competitiveness is the central promise, and co‑products like helium can improve project economics
Christophe Hecker argues that the opportunity hinges on price: if natural hydrogen can be produced around €1–1.5/kg, it can directly displace grey hydrogen at scale and provide an economically viable alternative.
Benoît Hauville stresses that economic viability may come from the full gas mix: co‑producing helium, which is a highly valuable gas, can strengthen the business case for natural hydrogen.
3. Exploration risk remains significant, but the sector can de‑risk progressively through phased work before committing to CAPEX‑heavy
drilling
Yannick Peysson argues that while the exploration risk is inherent to natural hydrogen, this can be significantly reduced with new technologies which process and validate geological data.
Christophe Hecker emphasises working with a step‑by‑step investment logic: early data acquisition and geoscience work can create value and decrease project risks before reaching the expensive drilling stage.
Key takeaways
Natural hydrogen could become a disruptive low‑cost source of hydrogen if exploration confirms scalable and economically recoverable resources.
The sector is leveraging decades of oil and gas expertise while benefiting from modern tools and faster learning cycles, which accelerate knowledge building compared to past resource booms.
Investment momentum is real but still concentrated geographically, and Europe risks falling behind the US and Australia unless capital and industrial mobilisation increase.
Speakers
🎤 Christophe Hecker, Spokesperson – Earth2
🎤 Yannick Peysson, R&D Program Manager – IFP Energies nouvelles
🎤 Benoît Hauville, Directeur Général – 45‑8 ENERGY
🎤 Raphaël Schoentgen, CEO – Hydrogen Advisors
Analytical synthesis courtesy of SIA Partners.
