Eclipse Energy lands Weatherford investment to scale clean hydrogen tech

clean energy collab

Eclipse Energy and Weatherford International are expected to launch joint projects early next year. Photo courtesy of Eclipse Energy.

Oil and gas giant Weatherford International (NASDAQ: WFRD) has made a capital investment for an undisclosed amount in Eclipse Energy as part of a collaborative partnership aimed at scaling and commercializing Eclipse's clean fuel technology.

According to a release, joint projects from the two Houston-based companies are expected to launch as soon as January 2026. The partnership aims to leverage Weatherford's global operations with Eclipse Energy's pioneering subsurface biotechnology that converts end-of-life oil fields into low-cost, sustainable hydrogen sources.

“We strongly believe the subsurface is the most overlooked climate asset,” Prabhdeep Singh Sekhon, CEO of Eclipse Energy, said in the release. “This partnership demonstrates how traditional oilfield expertise and frontier biotechnology can come together to transform the energy transition. Weatherford’s global reach and deep technical knowledge will accelerate our ability to scale our low-carbon technology rapidly and cost-effectively.”

Eclipse Energy, previously known as Gold H2, completed its first field trial this summer, demonstrating subsurface bio-stimulated hydrogen production. According to the company, its technology could yield up to 250 billion kilograms of low-carbon hydrogen, and it could also extend "beyond hydrogen, laying the foundation for the next generation of subsurface clean energy fuels."

Last month, Eclipse Energy won in the Energy Transition Business category at the 2025 Houston Innovation Awards. The company closed an $8 million series A this year and has plans to raise another round in 2026.

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Houston biotech company Gold H2's proprietary biotechnology has generated hydrogen from depleted oil reservoirs in a California field trial. Photo courtesy Gold H2.

Gold H2 harvests clean hydrogen from depleted California reservoirs in first field trial

breakthrough trial

Houston climatech company Gold H2 completed its first field trial that demonstrates subsurface bio-stimulated hydrogen production, which leverages microbiology and existing infrastructure to produce clean hydrogen.

Gold H2 is a spinoff of another Houston biotech company, Cemvita.

“When we compare our tech to the rest of the stack, I think we blow the competition out of the water," Prabhdeep Singh Sekhon, CEO of Gold H2 Sekhon previously told Energy Capital.

The project represented the first-of-its-kind application of Gold H2’s proprietary biotechnology, which generates hydrogen from depleted oil reservoirs, eliminating the need for new drilling, electrolysis or energy-intensive surface facilities. The Woodlands-based ChampionX LLC served as the oilfield services provider, and the trial was conducted in an oilfield in California’s San Joaquin Basin.

According to the company, Gold H2’s technology could yield up to 250 billion kilograms of low-carbon hydrogen, which is estimated to provide enough clean power to Los Angeles for over 50 years and avoid roughly 1 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent.

“This field trial is tangible proof. We’ve taken a climate liability and turned it into a scalable, low-cost hydrogen solution,” Sekhon said in a news release. “It’s a new blueprint for decarbonization, built for speed, affordability, and global impact.”

Highlights of the trial include:

First-ever demonstration of biologically stimulated hydrogen generation at commercial field scale with unprecedented results of 40 percent H2 in the gas stream.
Demonstrated how end-of-life oilfield liabilities can be repurposed into hydrogen-producing assets.
The trial achieved 400,000 ppm of hydrogen in produced gases, which, according to the company,y is an “unprecedented concentration for a huff-and-puff style operation and a strong indicator of just how robust the process can perform under real-world conditions.”
The field trial marked readiness for commercial deployment with targeted hydrogen production costs below $0.50/kg.

“This breakthrough isn’t just a step forward, it’s a leap toward climate impact at scale,” Jillian Evanko, CEO and president at Chart Industries Inc., Gold H2 investor and advisor, added in the release. “By turning depleted oil fields into clean hydrogen generators, Gold H2 has provided a roadmap to produce low-cost, low-carbon energy using the very infrastructure that powered the last century. This changes the game for how the world can decarbonize heavy industry, power grids, and economies, faster and more affordably than we ever thought possible.”

Prabhdeep Singh Sekhon, CEO of Gold H2, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo courtesy of Gold H2

Newly named CEO to lead Houston gold hydrogen biotech co. into high-growth phase

bugging out

Using microbes to sustainably unlock low-cost hydrogen sounds like the work of science fiction, but one Houston company is doing just that.

Gold H2, a spin-off company from Cemvita, has bioengineered subsurface microbes to use in wells to consume carbon and generate clean hydrogen. The technology was piloted two years ago by Cemvita, and now, as its own company with a new CEO, it's safe to say Gold H2's on its way.

"First of all, that was groundbreaking," Prabhdeep Singh Sekhon, CEO of Gold H2, says of the 2022 pilot in the Permian Basin, "to be able to use bugs to produce hydrogen within a couple of days."

"2024 is supposed to be the year where Gold H2 takes off," Sekhon, who joined the company in April, tells the Houston Innovators Podcast. "It was one of those opportunities that I couldn't turn down. I had been following the company. I thought, 'here is this innovative tech that's on the verge of providing a ground-breaking solution to the energy transition — what better time to join the team.'"

Sekhon shares on the show how his previous roles at NextEra Energy Resources and Hess have prepared him for Gold H2. Specifically, as a leader on NextEra’s strategy and business development team, he says he was tasked with figuring out what the energy industry looks like in the next five, 10, and 20 years.

"Green hydrogen was a huge buzz, but one of the things I realized when I started looking at green hydrogen was that it's very expensive," Sekhon says. "I wanted to look at alternatives."

This journey led him to what Cemvita was doing with gold hydrogen, Sekhon says, explaining that the ability to use biotechnology to provide a new revenue stream from the mostly used up wells struck him as something with major potential.

"The idea of repurposing existing oil and gas assets to become hydrogen assets, leveraging current infrastructure to drive down overall deliver costs — to me I thought, 'wow, if they can make this works, that's brilliant,'" he says.

Now, as CEO, Sekhon gets to lead the company toward these goals, which include expanding internationally. He explains on the show that Gold H2 is interested in expanding to any part of the world where there's interest in implementing their biotech. In order to support the growth, Sekhon says they are looking to raise funding this year with plans for an additional round, if needed, in 2025.

"When we compare our tech to the rest of the stack, I think we blow the competition out of the water," Sekhon says, explaining that Gold H2's approach to gold hydrogen development is novel when you look at emerging technology in the space. "We're using a biological process — cheap bugs that eat oil for a living."

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

Prabhdeep Singh Sekhon, who previously held roles at companies such as NextEra Energy Resources and Hess, was named CEO of Gold H2. Photo courtesy of Gold H2

Energy industry veteran named CEO of Houston hydrogen co.

GOOD AS GOLD

Cleantech startup Gold H2, a spinout of Houston-based energy biotech company Cemvita, has named oil and gas industry veteran Prabhdeep Singh Sekhon as its CEO.

Sekhon previously held roles at companies such as NextEra Energy Resources and Hess. Most recently, he was a leader on NextEra’s strategy and business development team.

Gold H2 uses microbes to convert oil and gas in old, uneconomical wells into clean hydrogen. The approach to generating clean hydrogen is part of a multibillion-dollar market.

Gold H2 spun out of Cemvita last year with Moji Karimi, co-founder of Cemvita, leading the transition. Gold H2 spun out after successfully piloting its microbial hydrogen technology, producing hydrogen below 80 cents per kilogram.

The Gold H2 venture had been a business unit within Cemvita.

“I was drawn to Gold H2 because of its innovative mission to support the U.S. economy in this historical energy transition,” Sekhon says in a news release. “Over the last few years, my team [at NextEra] was heavily focused on the commercialization of clean hydrogen. When I came across Gold H2, it was clear that it was superior to each of its counterparts in both cost and [carbon intensity].”

Gold H2 explains that oil and gas companies have wrestled for decades with what to do with exhausted oil fields. With Gold H2’s first-of-its-kind biotechnology, these companies can find productive uses for oil wells by producing clean hydrogen at a low cost, the startup says.

“There is so much opportunity ahead of Gold H2 as the first company to use microbes in the subsurface to create a clean energy source,” Sekhon says. “Driving this dynamic industry change to empower clean hydrogen fuel production will be extremely rewarding.”

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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Halliburton Labs names 4 new clean energy startups to incubator

green team

Four new companies have joined Halliburton Labs, the incubator for early-stage energy and climate startups run by Houston energy giant Halliburton.

Halliburton Labs provides the emerging companies with mentorship, industry connections, laboratory access and other resources as they work toward commercialization, according to a news release.

The four new members include:

Nandina REM, a Singapore-based company that delivers carbon fiber thermoplastics. It turns end-of-life assets into new, reliable, high-performance materials for the aviation, aerospace and defense industries in a fraction of the time of standard supply chains.
Noon Energy, a California-based company that delivers clean, reliable electricity with ultra-long duration energy storage. Its system uses solid oxide electrochemical cells and stores energy as abundant, flexible industrial gases.
Proof Energy, a Silicon Valley-based company developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that is commercializing next-generation metallic solid oxide fuel cell (M-SOFC) technology. Its system uses widely available fuels such as ethanol, methanol, ammonia, and natural gas as hydrogen carriers to enable lower-cost, low-emission commercial transportation, and also offers a zero-emission heating solution to preserve battery range in electric vehicles.
Tidal Metals, a New Jersey-based company that has developed technology to economically make decarbonized magnesium metal from seawater and electricity.

"Halliburton Labs exemplifies our commitment to advance a secure and pragmatic energy future," Jeff Miller, chairman, president and CEO of Halliburton, said in the news release. "We welcome these companies into our ecosystem, where they will gain access to the tools, expertise, and connections needed to scale their technologies."

Auckland-based Aquafortus Technologies and California-based Sunchem joined Halliburton Labs in September. With the addition of the four new members, the incubator currently supports six early-stage companies.

Read more about the incubator's 2025 cohort here.

Houston-area company to develop next-gen batteries for electric helicopters

emissions-free flight

Webster-based KULR Technology Group has announced a strategic co-development collaboration with Robinson Helicopter Company (RHC) to develop a next-generation, high-performance battery system for the eR66 battery-electric helicopter demonstrator.

KULR, an electronics manufacturing company, will serve as the developer of the advanced battery system for the eR66 platform. KULR will design and integrate a high-performance battery structure that uses its proprietary battery safety technologies and thermal management solutions, previously developed for aerospace and spaceflight applications.

California-based Robinson Helicopter Company is the world's leading manufacturer of civil helicopters. Its eR66 is expected to deliver zero-emission, affordable and quiet performance for “high-demand applications.”

“Robinson Helicopter has built more civil helicopters than any manufacturer on Earth, and their commitment to reliability is exactly the standard KULR’s battery architecture is designed to meet,” Michael Mo, CEO of KULR, said in a news release. “KULR’s battery systems have been qualified for NASA spaceflight. They were designed from day one for dual use: a primary flight cycle and a certified second life. The eR66 is where that architecture proves itself in rotorcraft.”

David Smith, president and CEO of Robinson Helicopter Company, cited the partnership as a shift in service for commercial and civil operations and touted the potential environmental benefits.

“By integrating electric propulsion, we aren't just reducing our environmental impact; we are unlocking critical new capabilities for life-saving missions,” Smith added in the release. “For use cases like rapid organ and tissue transport, the reduced acoustic signature and zero-emission profile ensure that time-sensitive, low-emission deliveries are faster, quieter, and more sustainable than ever before."

The companies say, through the partnership, they aim to:

Advance eR66 performance
Enhance aviation safety
Increase cost efficiency
Uphold American aerospace leadership
Support decarbonization
Promote circular economy principles

Tesla's EV Robotaxis officially launch in Texas' largest metros

On The Road

Tesla’s Robotaxi service has taken to the streets of Houston. In a brief statement Saturday, April 18 on its X social media account, Tesla Robotaxi says the autonomous rideshare service just launched in Texas’ two biggest metro areas — Houston and Dallas.

“Try Tesla Robotaxi in Dallas & Houston!” Tesla CEO Elon Musk says in a reposting on X of the Robotaxi announcement.

One of Robotaxi’s competitors, Alphabet-owned Waymo, beat the Tesla service to the Dallas, Houston, and Austin markets. Another competitor, Amazon-owned Zoox, has Dallas flagged for its autonomous rideshare service.

Robotaxi previously kicked off in Austin, where Tesla is based and manufactures electric vehicles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Nearly 50 Robotaxis operate in Austin, where the service’s inaugural rides happened last year, and more than 500 in the San Francisco area.

Of the three rides logged in a 31-square-mile area in Dallas as of Monday morning, the average fare was $7.96 and the average trip was 3.5 miles, according to an online tracker of autonomous rideshare services. The tracker showed only one Robotaxi was on the roads in Dallas.

As of Monday morning, a 25-square-mile area in Houston had two Robotaxis on the road, according to the online tracker. The average fare for five recorded rides was $11.34 and the average trip was six miles.

“We want Robotaxi pricing to be simple and easy for you to understand,” according to the Robotaxi website. “Initially, as part of our introductory program, we will charge a simple, affordable rate plus applicable taxes and fees for all rides within the available service area.”

The tracker shows the Robotaxi in Dallas did not have a human aboard to monitor each trip, and only one of Houston’s two Robotaxis did not have a human monitor in the driver’s seat.

For now, all passengers ride in Tesla Model Y cars. Robotaxi operates from 6 am-2 am daily.

To use the service, you first must download the Robotaxi app, which works only on iPhones.

Robotaxi lets you stream music and adjust climate settings and seat positioning from the Robotaxi app or the vehicle’s touchscreen. Climate and media settings are stored in your Robotaxi profile and automatically transfer from one vehicle to another. If you own a Tesla, certain profile settings and media preferences are available in your own car as well as in a Robotaxi.

In January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Musk said a “widespread” network of driverless rideshare vehicles would be operating in the U.S. by the end of this year, CNBC reported.

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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