BABBITT- Pulsar Helium broke the ceramic plug in its helium exploration well southeast of Babbitt on Tuesday. Breaking the seal—known as a packer—let the gas flow freely through the completed well casing for the very first time. Before Tuesday, the well was not in a production-ready state.
Pulsar’s pressure testing contractor began work on Wednesday. The flow tests will repeat a cycle of venting the well for 12 hours and then letting the pressure build back up a total of three times. After receiving the test results, Pulsar’s reservoir characterization contractor in Denver will deliver its results by the end of July. Those final numbers will determine if Pulsar builds a $50 million helium extraction plant at the well site.
The firm started work in January and completed its casing and initial borehole geophysical survey by the end of February. Then, the Superior National Forest closed the Dunka River Road due to adverse late winter and early spring road conditions. As soon as SNF reopened the road at the beginning of May, Pulsar was back out at the site, performing additional seismic and borehole geophysical surveys, and prepping the well for pressure testing and gas production.
Pulsar’s helium borehole is pushing Minnesota into new policy territory. Minnesota is not an “oil patch” state with a pre-existing regulatory framework for gas production from wells, but the recent discovery has prompted the Legislature to move forward with that process. In a measure approved last week, the Legislature set a temporary moratorium on gas permitting until an interim regulatory policy can be reviewed and approved by lawmakers.
Meanwhile, the Legislature authorized the Department of Natural Resources and the Pollution Control Agency to undertake an expedited rulemaking process and establishes a Gas Production Technical Advisory Committee comprised of state and federal agencies and the University of Minnesota.
When Pulsar started work, it built its well using a permit for a traditional mining exploration borehole because of the lack of a regulatory framework appropriate for gas exploration and production wells. Now that Pulsar’s “exploratory borehole” is a functioning gas production well, Minnesota now needs to catch up to permit and regulate it as such.