Emerald Operating Company
Emerald Operating Company (EOC) is a privately held Colorado S Corporation. Its primary business is owning and operating oil and gas wells in the Rocky Mountain region.
After 30+ years of operation in traditional oil and gas, EOC is now focused on renewable energy and “farming hydrogen and methane” to establish the planet’s first renewable and sustainable fuel.
Emerald and Shallow Gas Wells
In 2009, Emerald owned an interest in and operated about 170 shallow gas wells in northeast Wyoming. Low natural gas prices, occurring over the last decade, forced EOC to plug and abandon over 100 of these wells in 2013-14.
Production data for those 70+ remaining unplugged shallow gas wells indicated a stranded gas resource greater than 11 Billion Cubic Feet (1 BCF = 1,000,000 MCF). This stranded gas is a valuable resource that can be harnessed and monetized.
Conventionally producing these shallow gas wells requires the lifting and disposing of vast amounts of potable formation water. Removing the potable formation waters lowers the hydrostatic pressure in the coal seam (or the productive formations), releasing the absorbed methane in the coal’s molecular matrix.
Dealing with—and treating—potable water is an energy-intensive, expensive, and wasteful
process. The economics of conventionally producing this stranded gas is not feasible. And so began Emerald’s search for an economical way to monetize these stranded assets.
An Innovative Approach
These shallow gas wells are also known as coal bed methane (CBM) wells. CBM gas is biogenic in origin, meaning it’s generated by an assemblage of methanogenic bacteria (methanogens) living in the coals and formation waters during the coalification process.
Pumping water out and off the coals (to be able to desorb the methane) destroys the habitat of hydrogen and methane-producing bacteria. Nutrients in the water feed the methanogens, and the methanogens are what generate the hydrogen and methane.
In 2014, Emerald initiated a project to develop a passive, non-mechanical downhole gas-water separator tool. Using Emerald’s existing network of over 70 shallow gas wells as a testing platform, this patented tool has significantly reduced operational expenses.
Moving Forward
As a next step, EOC has tested the feasibility of introducing downhole, non-hazardous, benign solutions (“Amendments”) into dormant/uneconomic shallow gas wells. The goal was to stimulate hydrogen and methane generation by nourishing the methanogens with these Amendments. The field feasibility trials proved very successful in generating hydrogen and new methane, using different benign Amendments for each of the two generated fuels.
More about Emerald
Since its start in 1993, EOC has an ownership interest in oil and gas properties in Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. At the same time, EOC operated oil and gas properties in both Wyoming and Montana, as well as participated in and operated both conventional (vertically drilled) oil & gas plays, unconventional coal bed methane (CBM) plays in Wyoming and participated in various horizontal plays in Montana and North Dakota (Shaunavon and Bakken formations).