HyTerra Completes McCoy-1 Production Test and Refines Kansas Natural Hydrogen Strategy

HyTerra has completed production testing at the McCoy-1 well within the Ridge Play of its Nemaha Project in Kansas, generating new reservoir and operational data that will guide future exploration across the company’s broader natural hydrogen portfolio. 

The 14-day test was completed on schedule, below budget and without any health, safety or environmental incidents. The tested interval produced an estimated gas flow rate of approximately 0.1 Mscf/d at the conclusion of the program, with preliminary interpretation indicating low gas saturation at this particular location. 

HyTerra also recorded an air-corrected helium concentration of 2.8%, consistent with laboratory results from gas samples collected during earlier well operations. Onsite monitoring detected hydrogen, helium, methane and nitrogen, although the company believes some of the measured hydrogen and methane may have been influenced by secondary processes within the wellbore. 

Based on the production performance of the first interval, HyTerra has decided not to proceed with the proposed second-zone test at this stage. The company will instead integrate the gas composition, pressure, flow-rate and reservoir data before determining the appropriate next steps for McCoy-1 and the wider Ridge Play. 

The result provides HyTerra with its first extended production-test dataset from the Nemaha Project and offers practical information for future well selection, completion design and testing programs. Management intends to incorporate the findings into its internal exploration framework, referred to as its “Must Haves” rulebook, which is used to rank prospects and identify the geological characteristics considered most important for a commercial natural hydrogen accumulation. 

McCoy-1 tested one location within the Ridge Play, which accounts for approximately 20% of HyTerra’s Kansas acreage. The company has continued advancing the geologically distinct Rift Play in parallel, covering more than 80% of its Kansas position. 

The Rift Play targets potential hydrogen accumulations closer to the iron-rich source rocks of the Mid-Continent Rift. As illustrated by the subsurface diagram on page two of the announcement, HyTerra’s geological model distinguishes between hydrogen migrating toward structural traps on the Nemaha Ridge and opportunities located nearer the underlying rift source rocks. 

HyTerra has acquired geophysical data and completed rock-sample analysis across the Rift Play, identifying several prospects including Larson 1-14. The regional map on page three shows the separation between the Ridge and Rift exploration areas and highlights the scale of the company’s position along the Mid-Continent Rift system. 

The company will now continue ranking opportunities across both Kansas plays while assessing additional projects in the United States and internationally. McCoy-1 has narrowed the technical understanding of one Ridge Play location while providing reservoir and operational knowledge that can be applied across a much larger and geologically varied exploration portfolio.

Full press release can be found here.