Blue Star Helium Galactica and Pegasus Projects in Southeast Colorado: Helium and High-Purity CO2: 7 Galactica Wells Ready for Production Tie-In

      Blue Star Helium and partner Helium One are ready to tie existing wells into production in Southeast Colorado. Helium demand has been rising and is expected to continue to rise significantly to 2030. The company’s Pinon Canyon plant is expected to be installed and commissioned with 5-7 wells tied into production by December 2025. The helium play is expected to produce helium and high-purity CO2. No methane is expected to be produced from these wells. The CO2 is expected to be bought by the food and beverage industry. Helium is selling at high prices between $350 and $600 per mcf. That is 100 to 200 times the price of natural gas, for reference. Merchant CO2 sells for $200-600 per ton.

     The company notes the strategic location of the helium and CO2 reserves near transportation networks, purification facilities, and downstream customers.

     American demand for helium is expected to rise in the next 4 years due mainly to its use in semiconductors, which are needed for AI data centers. The CHIPs Act will also be a future demand driver as more semiconductors are manufactured.   

     Stage 1 of the company’s development plan is the Galactica Development, now being readied for production. The chance of successful production is buoyed by local producing wells in the adjacent Red Rocks Development operated by Desert Eagle Operating. Its production from December 2023 is shown in the third graph below.

     Stage 2 of Blue Star’s development plans includes drilling more wells on its adjacent Pegasus Development, on which they have already drilled two successful wells. They plan to continue development on the Galactica and Pegasus acreage, with up to four processing plants, similar to the Pinon Canyon plant. The slide below also shows growing Red Rocks production into 2025, which has nearly doubled since the graph shown above. The number of wells on production in Red Rocks also doubled from three to six.   

Stage 3 – CO2 Commercialization

     Demand for merchant CO2 is expected to rise between 3.6% and 5% annually through 2030. The U.S. market is already experiencing shortages and supply reliability issues. The first slide below gives some details on the U.S. merchant CO2 industry and markets. 70% of merchant CO2 is used in the food & beverage industry. They are working on developing CO2 processing plants. The company is especially excited by its Serenity acreage just southeast of Galactica and Pegasus, where a well encountered ultra-high-purity CO2 at 98.77% purity.

     The company’s Stage 4 plan involves acreage-wide exploration of its 300,000 acres in Las Animas County and likely cooperation with other operators in the play.

       The company notes some geopolitical issues with helium. Most production comes from two main areas globally: LaBarge Field (USA) and the North Field (Qatar). Russian helium is basically under sanctions and needs to be replaced. China has recently found large domestic sources of helium, which should help to keep global markets better supplied in the future. The U.S. Helium Reserve is experiencing significant depletion and was privatized in 2024.

     Below is a helium recovery unit, and schematics for processing plants, and local supply chain development with offtake and marketing flows.

  

References:

 

America’s Newest Helium Producer. Blue Star Helium. Corporate Presentation | October 2025. 61291508.pdf

Galactica-Pegasus project: Helium and CO2 Project in Colorado, USA. Helium One. Galactica-Pegasus project - Helium One Global

Red Rocks Helium Production Augurs Well for Blue Star. Akap Energy. December 4, 2023. Red Rocks Helium Production Augurs Well for Blue Star