PROMINENCE ENERGY LTD (PRM) - How Natural Hydrogen And Helium Could Power Industry And Lower Emissions

Ancient rocks may hold a faster, cheaper path to low‑carbon energy. We sit down with Dr Krista Davies, Managing Director of Prominence Energy, to unpack how the Gawler Craton’s hot granites, iron‑rich rocks, and deep crustal faults create multiple natural hydrogen “play types” across a massive 64,000 km² land position in South Australia. Krista brings three decades in oil and gas and a pioneering PhD in natural hydrogen to explain, in plain terms, why white hydrogen and helium could reshape heavy industry and unlock new export opportunities.

We walk through the exploration strategy from the ground up. First comes low‑impact soil gas and water bore sampling to detect subtle seepage signatures of hydrogen and helium, providing cost‑effective field validation across broad terrain. Then we integrate those anomalies with structural models to pick the smartest seismic lines, image reservoir and seal configurations, and rank traps before drilling. It’s a disciplined, geology‑led approach that turns a district‑scale thesis into drill‑ready targets while preserving capital and minimising surface disturbance.

Beyond the rocks, we map the market. Hydrogen demand today is big but emissions‑heavy; natural hydrogen offers a discovery‑and‑produce pathway that could lower costs and accelerate adoption for green steel, heavy transport, and industrial heat. Proximity to the Spencer Gulf, Whyalla’s industrial hub, and mining centres near Olympic Dam strengthens the case for local offtake and future export. We also dig into helium’s rising strategic value for MRI, semiconductors, and data centre cooling—an opportunity made sharper since Australia became a net helium importer. If exploration confirms accumulations of both gases, helium can enhance project economics and resilience.

We close with a clear 2026 roadmap: complete the geochemical survey on PEL 803, integrate insights to focus seismic in the second half, then advance a risk‑ranked portfolio toward drilling next year. If you care about energy transition, critical minerals, and practical paths to decarbonisation, this is a grounded, data‑driven look at what could be Australia’s next energy chapter. Follow the show, share it with a friend who follows ASX explorers, and leave a quick review to help others find these conversations.

Transcript

Andrew Musgrave

Welcome again to ASX Briefs, the podcast bringing you insightful conversations with leaders of ASX listed companies. And today we're joined by Dr. Krista Davies, the Managing Director of Prominence Energy Limited, an Australian energy explorer that has recently pivoted into high-growth natural hydrogen and helium sector with a massive strategic land holding in South Australia. 
 
 Krista, thanks for joining me today and welcome to the ASX Briefs Podcast.

Krista Davies

Thanks, Andrew. Lovely to be here.

Andrew Musgrave

Now, Krista, many investors will know Prominence from its conventional oil and gas assets, but the company recently reached a major milestone with the acquisition of the Gawler Natural Hydrogen Project. So, can you explain how Prominence came across the Gawler Hydrogen opportunity and why you believe the Gawler Craton is the right place to be exploring for natural or “white” hydrogen?

Krista Davies

Yeah, sure. So, I actually brought the Gawler Hydrogen portfolio with me into Prominence when we did the Gawler Hydrogen Project transaction. So, my background is in conventional oil and gas exploration. I spent about 30 years doing that. And then about six years ago, I got really interested in natural hydrogen and wanted to know more. And at that time, there was very little information out there about natural hydrogen. It was really at the beginnings of the industry. So, I decided to focus on that area, and I actually went back to uni and I did Australia's first PhD in natural hydrogen exploration. So, focusing on how exploration techniques could be taken and adapted from oil and gas expiration into finding natural hydrogen systems in the subsurface. So, while I was doing that research alongside that, the explorer in me couldn't help it. I started looking around Australia and looking for the right geological conditions that might exist for natural hydrogen generation and migration. And I spent a lot of time studying different geological provinces across the country, and gradually began building a portfolio of assets that I believed had strong potential for natural hydrogen and associated helium. So, one of the key things that I was looking for though was areas where there were multiple play types. So, there's many ways that natural hydrogen can be generated in the subsurface, and in that way it's a little bit different from traditional oil and gas exploration. And so, I wanted to concentrate in areas that had those multiple play potential. And the Gawler Craton in South Australia stood out. It's one of the oldest pieces of continental crust on earth, and those ancient cratonic systems contain those hot, deep granites that we need to generate natural hydrogen through water rock reactions. And as well, the same mechanisms will generate helium. So, the region also has a lot of big structural fault systems that can also act as migration pathway for the hydrogen. So, when the South Australian government in 2021 released, well they amended the petroleum legislation to allow for the exploration of natural hydrogen, that kind of opened the door for formally applying for the acreage. So now we have one of Australia's largest exploration portfolios for natural hydrogen and helium, with PEL 803 on the Eyre Peninsula being the first of our applications to be converted into an exploration licence.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, and just touching on that, obviously it's a massive land holding there of 64,000 square kilometres across the Eyre and the Northern Hinge project. So, you've already completed significant technical de-risking in the December quarter. So, what were the key geological indicators that gave you confidence in the hydrogen and helium potential here?

Krista Davies

Yeah, so the scale of the project is one of its biggest strengths, I think. So, across the Eyre and the Northern Hinge areas, that 64,000 square kilometres means that we're looking at district scale exploration opportunities rather than prospect scale. So, when we're screening, we're deliberately focusing on those areas, as I mentioned, with the multiple play type potential. So those are radiolytic hydrogen generation plays, so that's where we've got the radioactive granite basement rocks. We're also looking at areas where we have a lot of iron. So, on the Eyre peninsula in particular, there's a high concentration of iron-rich rocks. And we know from research that iron-rich rocks and water reacting can generate very high volumes of natural hydrogen. And there's also a major structural crustal zone in the Eyre peninsula where we believe that deeper mantle-derived hydrogen could possibly be migrating through the crust. So those are some of the key geological indicators that we're looking at. And of course, we've also got in the Northern Hinge area a lot of natural springs, and those natural springs, studies have been done on gas bubbling from those springs, and some of them have measured helium up to 2%. So, we know that helium can be economic at percentages much lower than that, and also methane up to 74%. So, we're looking at a kind of holistic approach here where we've got different systems contributing, and we've got the potential for that mixed gas stream that we can draw value from.

Andrew Musgrave

You've also just announced that preparatory work has commenced for your first geochemical ground survey in PEL 803 with field work starting in April 2026. So, can you explain the low impact, low-cost mechanics of soil gas and water bore sampling and how this data will prioritize your future seismic and drilling targets?

Krista Davies

Yeah, so this is a really important step for the project because it marks the transition from the desktop work into the field validation. So, the program starting in April focuses on soil gas and geochemical sampling, which are widely used in the industry, and they are very low impact exploration techniques. They allow us to get into the field and start looking for direct geochemical evidence of the hydrogen and the helium seepage without immediately moving to the more invasive exploration methods like seismic acquisition or drilling. So, we're looking for that field validation of seepage. The mechanics are relatively straightforward. Soil gas sampling, we're just inserting a probe, typically into about a meter, extracting a gas sample, and then we take that away and we'll analyse that in the lab for hydrogen, helium, and associated gases. We'll also collect soil samples on this on this project, and we'll analyse those in the lab as well for any gases that are adhered to the clay minerals, and this gives us more clues to the seepage of the natural gases in the area. Hydrogen and helium being both very mobile gases, if they're generated at depth and migrating upward through faults or fractures in the crust, then they leave subtle geochemical signatures like this in the soil and the groundwater as well. And the surveys are designed to detect these sorts of expressions. It forms part of an overall exploration toolkit, and it's a very cost-effective way to screen large areas. So, across a project of this size, we need these low-impact and low-cost techniques to start to hone in on the highest potential areas and screen for hydrogen helium anomalies. And they can be those anomalies can then be integrated with our geological and structural models, and then we can start to get into our prospect definition.

Andrew Musgrave

Now, looking at things at more of a macro level, there's been a lot of discussion globally about hydrogen as part of the future energy mix. So, from your perspective, what does the market opportunity for hydrogen actually look like and where could naturally occurring hydrogen potentially fit within that landscape?

Krista Davies

Okay, so hydrogen is already quite a large global industry, although most people don't realise that. Today it's widely used in fertilizer production, refining chemicals, and a range of industrial processes. But the issue is that it's currently produced mostly from natural gas or coal, which makes it both energy intensive and emissions heavy. And as countries are looking to decarbonize, hydrogen is expected to play an important role in providing electrification to things like steelmaking and heavy transport, shipping, and large-scale industrial heat. And we can see that focus by companies like Mitsubishi and Toyota starting to invest in natural hydrogen. They're looking for low-cost hydrogen alternatives. So, a lot while a lot of focus has been on the green hydrogen, that does require a lot of energy and significant infrastructure. Naturally occurring hydrogen offers a different pathway. Instead of manufacturing the hydrogen, we're discovering and producing hydrogen just like we have done for many generations with natural gas. It's got the potential to provide a really low-cost source of hydrogen as well as being low carbon emitting. From our project specifically, our location is important. Our Eyre project sits relatively close to the Spencer Gulf, which provides access to a deep-water port and the potential for large-scale export of hydrogen from South Australia. And we're also very close to the industrial hub at Whyalla, which has been looking for a number of years now for a solution to try and create large scale green steel production. So ultimately, hydrogen would be required there as an energy source as well. Further to the north, our Northern Hinge project, it lies relatively close to Olympic Dam and a number of other mining sites. And the mining industry is under increasing pressure to decarbonize its operations. So large industrial facilities like that could potentially become future off takers of low carbon energy for us as well.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, and alongside hydrogen, your project also has helium potential, which is another increasingly strategic gas. So, can you talk about the helium market opportunity and why it could be an important additional upside for the Gawler project?

Krista Davies

Sure. So, helium is becoming increasingly strategically important. For a long time, helium's been used in MRI scanners, etc., but it's becoming very important now because it's required for the generation of semiconductors and cooling systems in data centres. So as AI is becoming more prevalent and more part of the mainstream society, helium demand is increasing significantly. Australia stopped producing helium in 2023 when the Bayu Undan field was depleted. So now we are a net importer of helium. So now more than ever, it's critical for Australia to find its own helium supply. So, for the Gawler project, helium is particularly interesting because its generation is linked to the same processes that we're using to explore for natural hydrogen, also generate helium through the radioactive decay of granites in the crust. So, if exploration confirms accumulations of both hydrogen and helium, helium could provide a really valuable addition to the revenue stream alongside hydrogen, while of course contributing to rebuilding Australia's helium supply.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, Krista, now just to wrap things up, looking ahead to the rest of 2026, what are some of the key milestone’s investors should be watching out for as Prominence progresses its exploration programs towards seismic surveys and potential drilling?

Krista Davies

Looking ahead for the rest of 2026, we're going to be looking to steadily advance our exploration program. So, the first key milestone will be that geochemical survey that we talked about in April. That's the large-scale sampling across PEL 803 for hydrogen and helium seepage survey at the surface. And once we've got those results, the next step will be integrating and targeting, focusing in on areas for our seismic survey. And then once we've done our seismic survey, we expect that in the second half of this year, then we'll be able to really start to image the subsurface in greater detail, identify those reservoir seal configurations and the trapping potential for the natural hydrogen and helium. And the goal of that work is to build the portfolio, a portfolio risk-ranked leads and prospects across the wider licence area and position us with a good set of leads and prospects to move into a drilling program next year. So, for investors, the key milestones to watch are the geochemical survey, transition into seismic acquisition and the definition of drill ready targets.

Andrew Musgrave

Alright, Krista. Well, thanks for joining me on the podcast today to provide an update on the company, and we look forward to further updates in the upcoming months.

Krista Davies

Thanks very much, Andrew.

Andrew Musgrave

That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe, and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.