Interesting that the Minister should be congratulating NHE at this stage. The concentrations of He announced to date would not appear to support this enthusiasm .... However: there _is_ one aspect of what has been (suitably cautiously on NHE's part) announced which does seem to have been lost on some commentators in Australia, who have pointed to the seemingly minor levels of He in the overall gas-admixtures quoted by NHE to date ... (around 2%) , comparing this unfavourably to our domestic discovery at the Ramsay, S.A. site (up to6. 8%). The point being missed there, is the _Gas-Mixture_ . NHE's carrier-gas seems to be principally _Nitrogen_ , whereas GHY's He-carrier is said to be (mainly) natural _Hydrogen_ . Commercialistaion of Helium, involves fractionisation of the carrier-gas & Helium mixture, and the disposal of the depleted carrier-gas, (or diversion to another market). The narrower the Entropy-difference between one and the other, the higher the Capex (and likely, the Opex) --in respect of which, even if there is a market for Hydrogen and/or light Hydrocarbons, commercial disposal requires access to pipelines, or indeed their construction. Nitrogen, liquified, may be marketable ... but if that is impractical or commercially unfeasible from a remote location,, there is little enviromental consequence in simply venting it to atmosphere ... in addition to the relative simplicity of separating it from the targetted Helium. Food for thought ?
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