01Natural hydrogen and helium · Monzón, Aragón

Two elements.
Natural Power
from the earth.

Follow the well 3,600m down to the hydrogen, and back up to the power it makes. 40 seconds.

Helios is commercialising Europe's first natural hydrogen and helium project: off-grid, 24/7 and beside its customers.

Go to the numbers
Go to the numbersNumbers

The numbers

Two elements. Two billion dollars. Two years payback. Two solutions.

  • Two ElementsHydrogen and helium from the same wells

Elements

Hydrogen and helium from the same wells

ValueBillion dollars

$1bn from hydrogen, $1bn upside from helium

Years payback

Solutions

Power and water

See the numbersContact the CEO

Value and returns

Two billion dollars

Project value, hydrogen and helium upsideOne billion dollars from hydrogen plus one billion dollars upside from helium.
$1bn hydrogen$1bn helium upside

Hydrogen only

Internal rate of return
79%
Payback
1 year
Recoverable
476 bcf (1.1 million tonnes)

With 2% helium

Internal rate of return
57%
Payback
2 years
Recoverable
466 bcf hydrogen (98%), 10 bcf helium (2%)
Break-even
$0.5/kg
Peak production
80 mmscf/d (69,000 tonnes pa)
Field life
24 years
First production
2029

Hydrogen

  • 476 bcf recoverable (1.1 Mt), Helios most likely case
  • 69,000 tonnes per annum at plateau
  • 24-year field life
  • World's only certified contingent hydrogen resource

Helium

  • Over one billion dollars project value from hydrogen with one billion dollars upside from helium
  • 2% would be 10 bcf recoverable, about 1.5 times annual global use
  • EU critical raw material; 10% indigenous production mandate
  • Will be confirmed by the Monzón-2 appraisal well; not in the certified resource

Recoverable hydrogen certified by Sproule ERCE, 2026. $1bn from hydrogen valued by Wood Mackenzie, July 2024.

Flat farmland, a road and farm buildings near Monzón, low mesas on the horizon
The land around the well site, Monzón. Helios drone footage.

What comes next

One well.

Monzón-2, 2H 2027. One appraisal well will measure flow rates: the single measurement that moves contingent resources to commercial reserves.

  1. 012H 2027 appraisal well
  2. 02Final investment decision
  3. 032029 first production
  4. 04Payback in 2 years

Hydrogen production profile, mmscf/d

80
mmscf/day
12 years at plateau
Four production wells, 80 mmscf a day
Hydrogen production profile, mmscf/dPlateau 80 mmscf/d for 12 years, then 12-year decline.408020302035204020452050

Why it wins

Why it wins

  • Lowest cost of any hydrogen: break-even $0.5/kg.

    Green hydrogen costs many times more

  • 50x lower CO₂ than grey hydrogen

  • 24/7, 100% capacity, no storage

  • Proven technology: drilling and processing used for decades

Power

>150MW

To power multiple users. Off-grid, clean, 24/7.

Water

250

Hydrogen combustion generates 250 Olympic swimming pools of water per annum.

Monzón rail terminal from above: a rail line between stacks of containers
Monzón rail terminal. Monzón commune film.

Why now

Why nobody has done this before.

  • No incentive.

    The oil and gas majors are making record profits from hydrocarbons. It will require a pivot to fund a competing clean energy resource.

  • Nobody looked here.

    Natural hydrogen is generated in geological settings very different from oil and gas sources. These areas often have limited seismic and well data.

  • The instruments hid it.

    For decades drilling gas analysis used hydrogen as its carrier gas, so wells that may have contained hydrogen were never recorded.

Green and harvested fields over the Monzón field, flat to the horizon
Farmland over the Monzón field. Helios drone footage.

Helios knew where to drill. Dr Christopher Atkinson, a founder, remembered the Monzón-1 well from his PhD studies in the area. His follow-up research and the later Helios surveys have confirmed the presence of hydrogen.

The team

A management team from the super-majors.

Founded by Dr Christopher Atkinson and Dr Michael Hession.

  • Dr Michael Hession

    Dr Michael Hession

    Co-founder

    BP, then LNG ventures at Woodside Energy. CEO of NYSE-listed InterOil, acquired by ExxonMobil for US$3 billion in 2017.

  • Dr Christopher Atkinson

    Dr Christopher Atkinson

    Chairman and Co-founder

    Shell, ARCO. Founder of Serica Energy plc. SPE Distinguished Lecturer in natural hydrogen. 40 years.

  • Ian Munro

    Ian Munro

    Chief Executive Officer

    Mobil, ExxonMobil, Woodside, Oil Search. 35 years.

  • Luis Carmona

    Luis Carmona

    Country Manager, Spain, and Project Director

    Repsol and others. Managed the Viura gas project in La Rioja. 40 years.

Management

Talk to us about the project.

For investors, industrial offtakers, joint venture partners, research institutions and press.

Contact the CEO