CU spinoff LongPath Technologies locks in $162.4M federal loan for methane monitoring

BOULDER — LongPath Technologies Inc., a Boulder startup that has developed emissions-monitoring technology, recently finalized a $162.4 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office.

The funds will be used to accelerate LongPath’s development of its Active Emissions Overwatch System, which would monitor methane emissions across U.S. oil and gas production basins, including the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Colorado. The company’s technology was developed in University of Colorado Boulder engineering professor Gregory Rieker’s lab.

“DOE’s support for LongPath’s wide-area methane detection network is significant,” LongPath CEO Ian Dickinson said in a prepared statement. “Our laser-equipped system provides U.S. oil and gas producers with an affordable, high-impact tool to ensure compliance, optimize LDAR (Leak Detection and Repair ) programs, and eliminate costly methane leaks. This loan speeds up our capacity to offer operators the technology needed to achieve significant methane reductions, supporting both operational efficiency and environmental sustainability.”

Last year, LongPath received regulatory approval for use of its system by the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, making it the first emissions-monitoring technology approved by both CDPHE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Methane is a major contributor to climate change. The EPA’s supplemental methane rule standards of performance for oil and gas facilities, and Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission Regulation 7, require regular equipment inspections for methane leaks at new and existing oil and natural-gas production and compression facilities.

LongPath uses quantum sensors to detect even minute quantities of methane in the atmosphere.

“As governor, we made sure Colorado led the country with the first methane regulations of their kind,” U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, who was Colorado’s governor before he was elected to the Senate, said in a statement. “We’re building on that leadership to create real-time methane emissions monitoring for the rest of the country thanks to these Inflation Reduction Act investments and our homegrown innovators like LongPath.” 

The company raised $22 million in Series A funding in 2022. The equity round was led by White Deer, a private equity company, joined by energy-services company ProFrac Holding Corp., natural-gas-infrastructure company Williams Cos. Inc., Buff Gold Ventures and existing investors. Buff Gold Ventures is a venture-capital firm that invests in companies affiliated with the University of Colorado.

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