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North Sea business to scope out oilfields for hydrogen storage



Aberdeen firms Oilgen and Hydrenor have founded a Hydrogen Reservoir Engineering (HRE) division to assess depleted oil and gas fields for large-scale storage of clean energy gas.

Founders Laurent Schirrer and Isabelle Vervoort believe the business is the world’s first of its kind. They aim to help build the hydrogen infrastructure being targeted by the EU Commission and UK Government.

Oilgen, formed in 2002, specialises in reservoir studies for oil and gas production and its expertise includes gas storage, thermodynamics and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) simulation.

Sister company Hydrenor was established 2019 to aid the development of renewable, clean and sustainable energy, including hydrogen and the cutting methane emissions. It specialises in subsurface hydrogen storage.

The new division’s experts will tailor and deliver courses on the technical discipline at its Aberdeen base for reservoir engineers.

HRE has appointed Jonathan Scafidi, also a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh, as hydrogen consultant.

Scafidi, a geoscientist who studied on the CCS MSc at the University of Edinburgh, is researching hydrogen storage underground in porous rocks using computer simulations.

The firm plans to hire engineers and geoscientists with experience in the oil & gas sector.

Schirrer, who is managing director of Oilgen and Hydrenor, said: “Oilgen and our sister company, Hydrenor, have identified that there will be demand for large-scale underground storage facilities in the near future. Working together to create HRE allows us to pioneer the reservoir simulation of hydrogen, participating to the development of a clean new hydrogen economy.

“Hydrogen will be produced from renewable sources and will flow in pipelines, and the new energy commodity will see the creation of strategic storage methods to meet supply and demand.

“Quantities will be huge, and the ramp up will happen in this decade. I predict that by 2030 hydrogen will grow in capacity and infrastructure, not only in the UK but also across Europe and in other parts of the world. From 2030 to 2045 there will be a ramp up of this commodity in Scotland.”



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