The French government has awarded an exclusive five-year natural-hydrogen exploration permit to Mantle8 for an area of the Pyrenees that the French start-up believes has an “active hydrogen-generating source that replenishes sealed reservoirs”.

The permit allows the Grenoble-based company to conduct exploration activities, including geophysical surveys that have already begun, across 739sq km of the Comminges region in southern France, but separate approval will be needed to commence drilling.

Mantle8, which recently raised €31m in Series A financing, used its proprietary subsurface modelling and exploration technologies at the location last year, and says that the resulting data “signalled the presence of an active hydrogen-generating source that replenishes sealed reservoirs and underpinned the permit application”.