Good Morning Team.
Helix Exploration CEO Bo Sears joined me for an update on the ramp-up at Rudyard, the company’s flagship helium project in northern Montana.
The conversation opened on production mechanics - wells have been run conservatively at around 1,500 Mcf/day during commissioning, and I asked Sears about the upside as they move toward the roughly 2,000 Mcf/day rated capacity per well, what bringing the Inez well online means for reaching the plant’s full 6 million Mcf/day input capacity, and how the new membrane funded by the July placing — which effectively doubles processing capacity — changes Rudyard’s production potential once it’s operational.
We spent a good portion of the interview on offtake and pricing. Helix’s strategy has been to reach production before signing offtake agreements, on the logic that buyers want proof of supply first, and Sears discussed what it means to have secured an initial deal priced at spot rather than a fixed long-term rate in a historically tight helium market.
I asked about the three-month trial period tied to that arrangement, Rudyard’s confidence in hitting five-nines purity consistently, and what naming the offtake counterparty — once possible — could do for market perception of the company.
The isotope and gas-chemistry story got real attention too. I asked Sears about the 855 ppb helium-3 reading from the production stream, one of the higher concentrations documented anywhere, what that result meant when it came back, and how significant Rudyard’s helium-3 profile could become given its enormous price premium over ordinary helium-4 once separation technology matures.
We also covered the mantle-sourced helium-3 signature and what it implies for the company’s natural hydrogen thesis, and the pending argon-39 test that could confirm Rudyard as only the second known source of underground argon, alongside its early similarity to the argon profile at Cortez.
On the corporate and government side, we discussed Helix’s selection — over roughly 30 competing entities including national labs — for the Air Force’s Geologic Hydrogen Energy Resilience Initiative, and what that could mean given Rudyard’s proximity to Malmstrom Air Force Base.
I asked about the economics of owning the TSD rig outright at a discount to appraised value, and the potential to hire it out to third parties given the shortage of rigs in north-central Montana.
We also covered the Keyes acquisition — an already profitable, contracted business bought at a discount to replacement cost — and what controlling the chain from wellhead to liquid delivery could mean for margin capture.
We closed on strategy - Drachs’ increased position and board seats, how Sears thinks about sequencing helium, helium-3, hydrogen and potential argon as they move toward commercialisation, what he’s proudest of over the last twelve months, alongside where we might be a year from now.
Not one to miss.
