New Era Helium Inc (NASDAQ:NEHC) CEO Will Gray talked with Proactive about the company’s latest developments, including updates on the Pecos Slope plant project, evolving market strategies, and efforts in vertical integration.
Proactive: All right, welcome back inside our Proactive newsroom. And joining me now is Will Gray. He is the CEO of New Era Helium. And Will, it's great to see you again. How are you?
Will Gray: Doing well. Yourself?
I'm doing very well, thanks. I’ve got to say, you put out a really strong update on what’s going on at the company — there’s a lot happening. Let’s tackle this in pieces. Let’s begin with the Pecos Slope plant project first. That was a significant update.
Yeah, great point. There’s been a lot going on, especially with the company going public. We’ve spent a lot of time working with the SPAC and through the S-4 process. Unfortunately, some of the funding timing caused delays. We had hoped to commence in Q2, but barring unforeseen circumstances, it now looks like Q4.
What’s also been interesting is our midstream gather process in the field. The company that processes our helium is now under new ownership and management. That opens up new avenues for us. We’re exploring different methods of getting our helium to market. Right now, we produce helium, but under our contract, we don’t get paid for it. So we’re looking at ways to change that.
We’ve discussed vertical integration — building our own plants and integrating our own gathering system — and that’s still the goal. But if there are new opportunities with the existing processor, we’ll consider that too.
Even though there was a delay, it's giving you the opportunity to explore options like offtake deals. Sometimes these processes take time.
Yes, someone once told me that projects often take double the time and money. Hopefully, that won’t be the case here. The good news is we’ve got the reserves — they’re not going anywhere. We're producing natural gas right now, and with prices recovering a bit, that's helping the company.
The delay has also opened up new avenues for value creation. In a recent press release, we highlighted that our two main commodities — helium and natural gas — can serve as fuel sources for data centers. We're not sitting idle. The co-development of a 250-megawatt data center facility in the Permian is a big part of our strategy.
That data center is a big step. It’s bringing AI into the picture and could really transform things for the company.
Absolutely. We market New Era Helium across the AI ecosystem. The number one end use for helium today is in semiconductor manufacturing. Not many people know that. On the natural gas side, we’re seeing major demand for data center power. You can’t turn on the news without hearing about data centers.
Texas has become a hotspot, and the Permian Basin is uniquely positioned because of cheap and abundant natural gas. While the national price might be $4, in the Permian it can trade negative. There’s a glut of supply. That makes it a great location for siting data centers.
We believe we're a couple of steps ahead of the competition there. We’ll have more news on that in the coming weeks. I don’t want to discount the plant project either — that’s closely tied to funding our share of the power side for the facility.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and style