Jaxon Caines, technology reporter, Hart Energy: I'm Jaxon Caines with Hart energy. I'm here at Gastech 2024 in Houston, Texas. I'm here with Nathan Snoke, global account manager for hydrogen and new energies at Halliburton. And we're here to talk about hydrogen. So to start things off, Nathan, what are some of the biggest trends that you've seen in hydrogen so far?

Nathan Snoke: Well over the last many months, one of the biggest trends, I think, is a realization that we need to embrace all forms of it, regardless of what that color wheel is on hydrogen, that the global demand for this over the next 10 to 50 years is going to require an all of the above approach to those.

JC: So what types of hydrogen is the oil and gas industry specifically focused on?

NS: Well, what we look at as an industry, and certainly as a company as well, are those areas where our current competencies and capabilities line up incredibly well with. So when you translate that over to hydrogen, naturally occurring hydrogen is certainly one of those areas. Another one is going to be underground hydrogen storage. This allows us to use 105 years’ worth of experience and deploy that to help minimize the learning curve associated with these new aspects of hydrogen.

JC: And I'm glad you spoke on that because a lot of companies here at Gastech are focused on above ground storage, but Halliburton is focused on below ground. Can you tell me the difference between that, and why are you guys focused on the latter?

NS: Absolutely. Kind of goes with my previous comment, which is using our current expertise, 105 years of experience, focusing on the subsurface, helping reduce uncertainty and lowering cost. And when you look at underground hydrogen storage, it does that. It lowers the cost versus above ground and also reduces the uncertainty because these play to the strengths and the experience that we've already built up. There's large amounts of underground natural gas storage, and so it's using that sort of experience and translating over into this kind of newer sector in the industry.

JC: Okay. Now can you tell me where do you see hydrogen demand growing in the next five to 10 years?

NS: A lot of different numbers on that. It kind of depends upon the agency that you're looking at, but one thing we definitely know is it's going to grow substantially. Some of those have it growing, say about a 50% increase between now and 2030. Some of them higher, some of them lower, but we do know that's going to grow. And we do know that supporting that with subsurface dispatchable inventory is going to be required to support that growth because as the demand grows, the supply goes along with that and it needs to be sustainable, dispatchable supply.

JC: What are some of the unique challenges that hydrogen brings to the table?

NS: Well, when you look at hydrogen, it's going to be the physical characteristics and property of hydrogen, which is why we invest a lot of time in developing technology and proving other technologies that support that, just from the size of it to the viscosity of that molecule. We have to give a lot of attention and focus on how we help our customers capture that and manage it in their systems.

JC: Well, Nathan, thank you so much.

NS: Yeah, my pleasure, sir. Thank you.

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