Press Release
Engineered Mineral Hydrogen Pioneer Vema Hydrogen Promotes Colin McCulley to Chief Operating Officer
August 25, 2026
McCulley will head global scaling efforts for Engineered Mineral Hydrogen production
Houston, TX - August 25, 2026 – Today, Vema Hydrogen (“Vema”) announced that Houston-based energy veteran Colin McCulley has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer, where he will oversee the company’s global operations as it brings low-carbon Engineered Mineral Hydrogen (EMH) to commercial scale.
Since joining Vema in January 2024 as Senior Vice President, Colin successfully spearheaded construction efforts for Vema’s first pilot wells in Quebec, Canada earlier this year, where Vema is currently gathering critical data to advance modeling and guide the next phase of commercialization. As COO, Colin will manage the operations critical to advancing this technology, including field exploration, land access and mineral rights, equipment procurement and well testing.
His promotion comes at a time when demand for energy, low-carbon fuels and feedstocks is at an all-time high. Vema’s proprietary EMH process accelerates naturally occurring chemical reactions in iron-rich rock to produce cost-effective, low-carbon hydrogen. This process reduces exploration risk by relying on easily characterized geology and utilizes established drilling equipment and techniques taken from the oil & gas playbook.
EMH is gaining swift traction across multiple industries, with use cases that include: feedstocks for clean fuels like sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and e-methanol, energy for mining operations and electricity for data centers and hyperscalers. Since completing its first pilot wells, Vema has announced offtake agreements and partnerships with SAF+ International Group, First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt, CHARBONE, and others, highlighting market appetite for EMH and establishing a thriving ecosystem in Quebec.
“This is an exciting time to be in hydrogen and at a company that is paving the way for a new and faster path to decarbonizing heavy industry,” said Colin McCulley, COO. “My immediate priority is to demonstrate our wells’ viability to scale into high-yield, production-ready facilities. We are moving quickly but deliberately to establish the operational infrastructure needed to meet the massive global demand for low-cost, low-carbon hydrogen.”
With a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, Colin is a tenured energy professional with experience at BP, Evolve Midstream Partners and Sanchez Oil & Gas Corporation. Prior to joining Vema, Colin acted as the Director of Operations at Daylight Petroleum, where he built a 100+ person staff, grew operations of $400M of energy assets, and managed well drilling projects in three states.
“Since the company’s founding, Colin has been an integral part of the team who has taken Engineered Mineral Hydrogen from the lab to the field in two short years,” said Pierre Levin, CEO of Vema. “The work he’s completed thus far gives us complete confidence in Colin’s ability to lead the company’s global operations as we aim to produce low-carbon hydrogen for generations to come.”
About Vema Hydrogen
Vema Hydrogen is a producer of low-carbon hydrogen, offering a new path to a clean energy future. The company's unique technology, Engineered Mineral Hydrogen, harnesses naturally occurring chemical reactions below the Earth's surface to produce high-purity hydrogen. By applying geoscience to de-risk production and ensure predictable, cost-competitive output, Vema makes clean hydrogen a viable solution for large-scale industrial energy and baseload power needs. More https://www.vema.earth/.
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