Thousands of cubic feet of natural gas are vented every day from the Navajo Nation’s remote oil-producing operations in southeastern Utah, adding a powerful greenhouse gas to the atmosphere that could otherwise be put to beneficial use.
The tribe’s oil and gas company now says it has found a solution where the vented methane would be captured, converted to hydrogen and delivered to market for use in fuel-cell vehicles and other equipment that uses the universe’s lightest known element.
In a deal announced Monday at the Utah Capitol, Navajo Nation Oil and Gas will contract with an upstart Missouri-based alternative-energy company called H2GO and a tribally affiliated renewable energy firm known as Big Navajo Energy.