Hydrogen12 Dec 2025 09:00
Anyone who’s followed this board for a while will remember that I’ve questioned 80M’s hydrogen/helium ambitions from the very start. The BoD seized on the hydrogen “bandwagon” when it became fashionable — no surprise there — but the fundamentals never stacked up. Most of the world’s hydrogen is produced cheaply as a by-product of LNG processing, and as long as LNG remains in global use, that feedstock remains abundant, low-cost, and close to end-users. Greenland, unsurprisingly, doesn’t fit that model.
Now we’re seeing another potential source emerge: generating hydrogen from older, inactive and currently uneconomic oil wells using microbes. The article below outlines the early-stage work, but the headline is straightforward: production costs could be comparable to existing LNG-based methods, while producing roughly half the CO₂. If this can be commercialised at scale, it opens the door to millions of existing wells producing low-cost hydrogen from infrastructure that’s already in place — and importantly, much closer to the markets that need it.
It’s early days, and not yet proven at scale, but it’s an intriguing development. Cheap, decentralised hydrogen from redundant wells is a far more realistic pathway than anything Greenland can offer.
So when 80M circles back to talking up hydrogen again (from Greenland), it may be best to treat it with a chunk of cynicism. Of course, henceforth they may now be referring solely to hydrogen production in Italy. Where costs would certainly be more than the microbe route. Still no sign of that cranking up though - despite several restart dates having been and gone. And just how long does it take to get a grant? It's, what, over a year now since we were told about the application - and several of the grants have been closed to applications and already been allocated. Still, the ramp crew were certain that GS would start up this December, oh and in February and in June and in……. Tick tock - realistically about one more week before the latest restart date comes and goes. Eagerly awaiting news.
Link: https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/11/eclipse-energys-microbes-can-turn-idle-oil-wells-into-hydrogen-factories/