According to reports, up to three million abandoned oil and gas wells are still littering the United States alone, and while many still contain oil or natural gas, energy industry players have ignored the potential to date. However, the start-up wants to change that.
To fulfil the goal, Eclipse Energy is betting on the method of sending down microbes to eat oil molecules and liberate their hydrogen, instead of pumping harder or using a device to force oil to the surface.
The Houston-based start-up, which was spun out of Cemvita (a Houston-based company known for regenerating carbon waste into valuable resources), demonstrated the technology at an oilfield in California’s San Joaquin Basin earlier in 2025.
The company is also partnering with oilfield services company Weatherford International to deploy the technology on a global scale. The first projects in this direction will begin in January 2026.
Transforming Liabilities Into ‘Clean Energy Assets’
Eclipse Energy, previously known as Gold H2, has been developing the microbe-dominated hydrogen liberation technology over the last few years. It has been sampling microbes that naturally occur in oil wells, found at the interface between oil and water held in aquifers.
After consuming the oil, microbes break it down into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Both then flow to the surface, where Eclipse and its industry partners will eventually separate the two. While about half of the carbon dioxide will likely stay in the reservoir, the other half could be captured using specialised equipment and either sequestered or used.
Interacting with media, Prabhdeep Singh Sekhon, CEO of Eclipse Energy, said, “The goal is to produce low-carbon hydrogen for around 50 cents per kilogramme, or the same price as hydrogen obtained by breaking down natural gas in an industrial plant, a process that releases more carbon dioxide. The resulting hydrogen could be used in petrochemical plants or burned for energy.”
Eclipse Energy’s method is about applying advanced subsurface science with deep genomic microbiology to transform end-of-life oil fields into hydrogen-generating assets. By integrating geoscience, reservoir engineering, and chemistry, the start-up wants to turn liabilities into productive resources, thereby extending the value of existing infrastructure for decades to come.
For the start-up, clean energy should also be cost-effective. Following this principle, it has established a pathway to generate hydrogen at USD 0.50/kg, making the microbe-dominated liberation technology cost-competitive with the exploration methods used by legacy natural gas clean energy players. Also, the hydrogen production method eliminates the requirement for water, thereby addressing two concerns of hydrogen production (carbon and water constraints) at one go.
Redefining The Innovation Game
Eclipse Energy’s technology, which produces hydrogen at a price point equivalent to natural gas (deliverable as clean molecules or clean electrons), can be deployed rapidly, as opposed to traditional hydrogen buildouts, turning uneconomic oil field liabilities into sustainable revenue streams.
“Eclipse Energy exists to do what no one ever has: produce clean hydrogen directly in the subsurface using biology, engineering, and existing energy infrastructure. It’s a new blueprint for decarbonisation, built for speed, affordability, and global impact,” Sekhon stated.
Apart from ranking among the cleanest hydrogen sources on the energy market, Eclipse’s method is capital-efficient, as it uses existing infrastructure, thereby driving best-in-class capital and operating costs and accelerating the path to profitability. The start-up’s industrial partners will not require new drilling, electrolysis, or energy-intensive surface facilities in the days ahead.
The biotechnology, in addition to enabling rapid deployment, has established modularity as its core operational principle to facilitate easy expansion with minimal investment while responding swiftly to market demands.
The exploration process begins with streamlined field screening and advanced microbial testing to identify and qualify the most promising reservoirs. After that, the start-up launches pilot programmes with customised nutrient packages, continuously adapting and optimising to maximise hydrogen production.
Once validated, projects can scale seamlessly into full commercial operations, creating long-term industrial partnerships that unlock reliable clean fuel, carbon tax savings, and powerful new revenue streams. As per Eclipse, this breakthrough hydrogen exploration and production method could potentially power Los Angeles for more than 50 years, while avoiding nearly one billion metric tons of CO₂.
“With multiple offtake pathways available, our partners can optimise returns across markets, policies, and demand, capturing both profitability and lasting impact in the transition to a cleaner energy future,” the start-up concluded.