# How Dead Oil Fields Became Clean Energy Goldmines

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/energy-101-we-ask-the-dumb-questions-so-you-don-t-have-to-5658842/how-dead-oil-fields-became-clean-energy-goldmines
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/energy-101-we-ask-the-dumb-questions-so-you-don-t-have-to-5658842/how-dead-oil-fields-became-clean-energy-goldmines.md
Podcast: [Energy 101: We Ask The Dumb Questions So You Don't Have To](https://stenobird.com/podcast/energy-101-we-ask-the-dumb-questions-so-you-don-t-have-to-5658842)
Published: 2026-02-16T14:18:07+00:00
Episode link: https://energy101.collide.io/episodes/how-dead-oil-fields-became-clean-energy-goldmines
Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/5050c9ee/69f5f0c4.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/energy-101-we-ask-the-dumb-questions-so-you-don-t-have-to-5658842/episodes/how-dead-oil-fields-became-clean-energy-goldmines
Duration seconds: 2703

## Resource

Prabhdeep Sekhon, CEO of Eclipse Energy, breaks down the hydrogen rainbow and why it doesn't tell the whole story about cost, carbon intensity, and water use. From farm boy in Canada to petroleum engineer in the Bakken to clean tech founder, Prab explains how his team is using microbes to eat leftover oil in abandoned fields and produce hydrogen without water, turning billion-dollar liabilities into clean energy assets. He walks through their first-of-a-kind California project that hit 40% hydrogen production, the West Texas deployments coming next, and why co-locating data centers in oil fields solves both the molecule transport problem and the cooling water challenge. They discuss hitting $0.50 per kilogram hydrogen by 2028, why natural gas isn't going anywhere, and how oil and gas companies are actually paying them to figure out the future of their abandoned reservoirs. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy. Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward. Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 - Prab's journey from farm to petroleum engineer 03:15 - Skills oil and gas taught him for clean tech 08:26 - Energy pragmatism and decarbonization economics 10:30 - Breaking down the hydrogen rainbow 14:01 - Green hydrogen costs and water intensity 15:53 - Gray and blue hydrogen trade-offs 17:55 - Natural and geological hydrogen potential 21:14 - Eclipse's approach to the problem 24:17 - Eating oil with microbes for hydrogen 26:20 - California first-of-a-kind project results 28:41 - Field operations walkthrough 32:10 - Hydrogen use cases and volumes 36:01 - Cost parity with natural…

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