RE: A question guys3 Jul 2026 10:54
Yes, in principle they can extract both hydrogen and helium from the same gas stream, but it depends on the concentrations and the processing plant design.
Hydrogen and helium are actually quite unusual because they're the two lightest gases. In a mixed gas stream, processors would typically remove nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide and other gases first, leaving a hydrogen-helium-rich stream. Further separation would then be needed because hydrogen and helium have different physical properties.
If the Inez wells were to contain commercially meaningful hydrogen alongside helium:
Helium could be recovered and sold into industrial and medical markets.
Hydrogen could potentially be purified and sold as a fuel or industrial gas.
The economics of the field could improve significantly because you'd have two valuable products from the same wells.
A liquefaction plant being acquired for helium wouldn't automatically be suitable for hydrogen production, but some of the gas-processing infrastructure could be shared.
What's particularly interesting is that Helix has already described Rudyard as a noble gas system with deep geological sourcing. Some geological models suggest that natural hydrogen can occur in similar deep crustal environments, although Helix has not announced any commercial hydrogen discoveries to date.
For shareholders, a meaningful hydrogen discovery at Inez would likely be viewed as an additional upside opportunity rather than something currently priced into the shares. Right now, the market value of Helix Exploration is overwhelmingly tied to helium production, reserve growth and the success of the Rudyard and Inez drilling programmes.
If Inez were to show, say, 1%+ hydrogen alongside helium, I'd expect the company to investigate whether dual-product recovery was worthwhile. If it were 10%+ hydrogen, that would probably become a major part of the investment story. At the moment, though, that's still speculative until the well results are known.
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