Systematic Approach to Deep-Sea Mineral Exploration – Thinking Outside the Oil-and-Gas Box

Summary In the context of challenges related to the increasing demand for raw material, deep-sea minerals present a potential solution to enable energy transition at the expected rate and allow scaling of various green technologies that require vast amounts of diverse metals. In recent years, deep-sea minerals emerged in global discussions outside academia gaining attention from various economic sectors. With the expansion and transformation of oil & gas companies into energy companies, deep-sea minerals often get compared to hydrocarbons and are identified as another type of offshore commodity to which oil & gas technologies can be readily applied. Although both categories of resources are found offshore and require advanced technologies for their exploration and extraction, blind application of oil & gas methodology and ignored nuances may lead to inefficient and unnecessary, or even harmful activities in environmentally sensitive areas. In this paper, we discuss the imperative for a systematic approach to deep-sea mineral exploration and evaluation of legacy practices inherited from academic research practices and adapted from the oil & gas domain.