The NASA Technology Now Tracking Oilfield Methane

Methane is invisible, odorless, and far more potent than CO2 in the short term, so how do you actually catch it leaking? Brendan Smith, CEO of SeekOps Inc., explains how technology built for the Mars Curiosity rover ended up flying on drones over oil and gas sites here on Earth. We get into spectrometers versus satellites, why offshore detection is so tricky, what EU methane rules mean for US operators in 2027, and how SeekOps turns an invisible gas into something you can finally see.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

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   Setup and the Power Hour combo

02:24   Crossing paths back in 2019

04:14   From PhD dropout to CEO

05:24   JPL, the first patent, and Mars rover tech

12:34   How a drone measures a methane plume

13:49   Ground, drones, planes, and satellites