RE: PRD Website28 Apr 2026 13:56
Keith’s post from a few days ago.
‘ Helium. Is it just a pipe dream?
The geological setting is favourable for Helium. It has recently been discovered that there are massive ancient granitic plutons beneath the region, that only show as tiny outcrops at the surface. The U & Th within the granite minerals has been undergoing radioactive decay for around 150M years, so has had plenty of time to produce lots of He.
The overlying rock strata include thick layers of salt and impervious marls, perfect for sealing gas within suitable structures. There are extensive fault systems that would enable transfer of He from the granites up to the trapping structures, which also contain methane. PRD has detected He in a fault system intersected by MOU-5 at 1557 ppm (about 500x expected background), and also in the deepest sample taken in MOU-3, at 1395M. I have asked what the other 998443 ppm were in MOU-5, since there wasn't any methane, but didn't get an answer. I also asked what the concentration of He was in MOU-3, again no answer. I have further asked about the status of the licence-wide satellite survey for He that should have been completed some months ago - again, no answer.
Now, the difficult question - is it commercial? That depends upon the concentration of He within the methane carrier gas, and the volume of methane. Where you have vast quantities of gas, such as the North Field in Qatar or the Hassi R'Mel field in Algeria, then a very low concentration of He becomes commercially viable. Helium is expensive to separate from the methane, and the price obtained can vary enormously dependent upon purity, but if everything was just right, it could double the value of the methane.
With Qatari production currently out of action due to Iranian war damage, He is once again in short supply. A new viable source, outside a politically sensitive area, would be of great interest. However, at this stage, PRD are keeping very quiet about both the volume of methane and the concentration of He.
This could mean two things - either there isn't very much He, or there is lots of it.’