A US startup can now hunt natural hydrogen under 4,100 square kilometers of Luzon
President Marcos signed a third exploration contract for Koloma, a Denver startup backed by Bill Gates' climate fund. The new one covers western Zambales.
The Department of Energy announced on July 24 that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Service Contract 92, giving the American firm Koloma the exclusive right to search for natural hydrogen in western Zambales. It is the company's third exploration contract in the Philippines.
Together the three contracts cover more than 4,100 square kilometers of Central Luzon and Zambales, an area more than six times the size of Metro Manila. Koloma won the first two in October 2025, in what the government called the world's first competitive bidding round for natural hydrogen.
Why it matters
Natural hydrogen, also called geologic or white hydrogen, is hydrogen gas that forms on its own deep underground. The DOE's point is the cost. It does not have to be manufactured in a plant, so if it exists in usable amounts it could be cheaper and cleaner than the hydrogen the world makes today. The Philippines imports most of its fuel, so a homegrown source is the real prize here. Energy Secretary Sharon Garin put it this way:
The award of SC 92 builds on the ongoing exploration activities in Central Luzon and reflects our commitment to responsibly evaluating the country's natural hydrogen potential.
The catch to watch
Exploration is not discovery. Koloma has started 2D seismic work under its first two contracts, which means bouncing sound waves off the rock to picture what sits below. It has not announced a producing well anywhere in the country. Denver-based Koloma was founded in 2021 and is funded by clean energy investors including Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures, so it can afford a long search, but money is not the same as a find.
The announcement also left out the numbers that would tell you how serious this is. It did not say how much Koloma will spend, how many years it has to explore, or what work it is committed to doing. For now the country has handed a well funded startup a large search area and time to look. Whether there is usable hydrogen under Zambales is still an open question.