This study investigates natural hydrogen (H2) occurrences in the Paris Basin, using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to analyze an extensive, yet historically underexploited, well database that contains older drilling records. With the growing demand for carbon-free energy, natural hydrogen, produced through processes like serpentinization and water radiolysis, offers a promising alternative to fossil fuels. However, its potential has been largely unexplored in conventional oil and gas wells. Utilizing the BEPH (Office of Exploration and Production of Hydrocarbons) French database, which includes well logs, mudlogs, and End Drilling Reports (EDRs) in PDF image format, we applied the Tesseract-OCR Engine to convert these documents into searchable formats for efficient data analysis. Our analysis revealed several H2-bearing wells across the French sedimentary basins. The hydrogen occurrences in the Aquitaine Basin correlate with the geological context, but those in the Paris Basin present an anomaly, as their H2 occurrences do not align with the expected geological factors. In the Paris Basin, H2 has been detected in four main formations: the Lusitanian aquifer, Dogger aquifer, Triassic aquifer, and the basement. The highest hydrogen concentration (52 vol%) was found in the Dogger formation. These wells are primarily located along the Bray fault and thrust, indicating a geological influence on H2 distribution. This research demonstrates the effectiveness of OCR in reprocessing historical drilling data for natural hydrogen exploration, highlighting the need for comprehensive exploration methodologies in this emerging field.

Native hydrogen (H2) may represent a new carbon free energy resource, but to date there is no specific exploration guide to target H2-fertile geological settings. Here, we present the first soil gas survey specifically designed to explore H2 migration in a region where no surface seepage has been documented so far. We choose the Pyrenean orogenic belt and its northern foreland basin (Aquitaine, France) as a playground to test our strategy. The presence of a mantle body at shallow depth (< 10 km) under the Mauléon Basin connected to the surface by major faults is considered as a preliminary pathfinder for H2 generation and drainage. On this basis, more than 1,100 in situ soil gas analysis (H2, CO, CO2, CH4, H2S, and 222Rn) were performed at ~1 m depth at the regional scale along a 10 x 10 km grid spanning over 7,500 km2. The analysis campaign reveals several hot spots to the north of the Mauléon Basin where H2, CO2 and 222Rn concentrations exceed 1000 ppmv, 10 vol% and 50 kBq m-3, respectively. Most of these hot spots are located along the North Pyrenean Frontal Thrust and other related faults rooted in the mantle body. These results, together with evidence of fluid migration at depth, suggest that H2 may be sourced from mantle rocks serpentinization and carried to the surface along major thrusting faults. Hydrogen traps remain unidentified up to now but the presence of salt-related structures (diapirs) near these hot spots could play this role.