REGINA — What is touted as the first natural hydrogen well in Canada is proceeding to the next stage of evaluation.
MAX Power Mining Corp. made the announcement at the University of Regina last Thursday that it is moving ahead with zone testing for the Lawson well near Central Butte. That well is where drilling started two weeks ago on a major discovery of natural hydrogen at the location.
Recently MAX Power had announced it completed Canada’s first-ever well specifically targeting Natural Hydrogen, running at a total depth of 2,278 meters. They noted in their news release Nov. 25 that natural hydrogen was present at that location.
Ranjith Narayanasamy, who is the incoming new CEO of MAX Power as of Dec. 8, explained why their announcement was significant.
“I think the most important thing is we drilled the first natural hydrogen well in Saskatchewan, in Central Butte, just last week, two weeks back. And also there is a service rig that is coming up next week to do some more work on it,” Narayanasamy said. "We are very fortunate in Saskatchewan and we have a strong government and we have permits for 1.3 million acres of land. And we are able to start the work."
It was described in a news release as a successful “test of concept,” and extensive data analysis is under way to confirm concentrations of natural hydrogen and helium gases. Additional testing at the Lawson location is still to come to determine potential flow and volume.
Saskatchewan is known for natural resources including potash, uranium and oil. Now there is interest in natural hydrogen, which has gained interest around the world as a clean energy alternative.
Steve Halabura, professional geoscientist with MAX Power, explained the role of natural hydrogen in clean energy. He explained it is a naturally occurring hydrogen located in the subsurface.
“The world is moving towards cleaner forms of energy … that includes wind, solar, other forms of power, but it also includes fuels like natural hydrogen,” Halabura said.
“And natural hydrogen is natural because it comes out of the earth. It is not made, but it is formed by earth processes. So it's very carbon neutral.”
Halabura said that we are “right at the cusp of seeing large global growth in demand. It is now becoming a global initiative. It's not just us in Saskatchewan that are saying, hey, natural hydrogen is good, but this is part of a global movement. And MAX is positioned to be one of the global leaders in this emerging sector.”
There has also been interest from Southeast Asia, with MAX Power confirming a corporate investor from Vietnam is coming on board as a strategic partner with an investment of $5 million. That transaction was expected to close this week, with the company saying in a news release this reflects "growing international interest in natural hydrogen."
Narayanasamy sees a lot of opportunity in developing the natural hydrogen resource at home in Saskatchewan.
“I think Saskatchewan has the best energy opportunities in terms of potash, uranium, now natural hydrogen,” said Narayanasamy.
“So we are able to explore that and we are able to develop that natural resource in the province of Saskatchewan. And I'm really interested. One of the reasons is — I strongly believe Saskatchewan is the best for any mining investment, energy development. You see the opportunities in Saskatchewan in uranium, potash, carbon capture utilization and storage, now natural hydrogen, even geothermal. Like the city of Regina is building a new Aquatic Centre where it will be heated by a geothermal well. It's under subsurface."
Another thing he likes is "we are using the oil and gas skill sets and experience and people to develop the new resources. So we are using the existing infrastructure to develop that. That's really important for me because we are using the existing opportunities.”
As for how natural hydrogen can be beneficial going forward as a whole, Narayanasamy said energy is “like a buffet.”
“Like you need nuclear, you need coal, you need gas, you need hydro, you need wind and also we need natural hydrogen. It's a clean energy which is naturally occurring in the subsurface.”
He said balancing that mix of energy is especially important in Saskatchewan.
“We are not blessed with hydro like Manitoba or BC or Quebec. So we have a very diverse grid here with all the I'm talking about — gas, coal, hydro, wind and even solar is coming in… So there is an opportunity to bring natural hydrogen into the mix.”
There is no shortage to the demand for new sources of energy. Narayanasamy noted power consumption is getting higher, not lower, pointing to the world population going up to nine billion by 2050. He also pointed to the need for energy by data centres and artificial intelligence.
“If you look at the data centres and artificial intelligence growth – when you type a prompt, just one prompt, it consumes so much energy and so much water because it needs a lot of power,” Narayanasamy said.
“Imagine if we can find a natural hydrogen and we use the natural hydrogen for supplying to the data centres, which is empowered by artificial intelligence. It's going to be a big win for all of us because the artificial intelligence and data centres are driving the North America quite a bit for energy usage. I think we have a really important opportunity to support that sector with a clean energy like natural hydrogen.”
Narayanasamy described their early results in exploring for natural hydrogen as having “a lot of potential and promising”, but adds there's still a lot of work that has to be done. He pointed to strong research partnerships with the University of Regina and other institutions.
Halabura emphasized they have a “spectacular team” in place.
“The technical team, we've pulled together some of the best in the sector based here in Saskatchewan. So this is very much a team effort. Exploration is a journey, and we've got at least six test of concept locations to test. And I'm fairly confident that as we move down that process, we will learn enough. We will learn enough about the geological environment for natural hydrogen. We'll understand better the makeup of the deep, deep, deep geology of this province that we will make a commercial discovery.”
