Flathead Forge Invests in Capwell to Turn Vent or Flare Gas into Revenue
HOUSTON, July 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
Capwell captures natural gas from low-flow vents conventional equipment cannot reach and returns it for sale, turning a compliance cost into revenue while simultaneously cutting methane emissions.
Flathead Forge Fund 1 has invested in Capwell, a Houston company that turns one of the oil and gas industry’s routine costs into a source of revenue. Across hundreds of thousands of U.S. sites, low-flow vents on storage tanks, wellheads, and compressors release or burn off natural gas that is too small and scattered for conventional equipment to recover economically. Capwell’s patented unit captures that gas and sends it back to the pipeline, or reuses it as fuel on site, so a vent that used to cost money starts making it, while keeping methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide, out of the atmosphere.
Today, operators have two options for these small streams, and neither pays. They can vent the gas, losing a saleable product and releasing methane, or burn it in a combustor to stay compliant, destroying the gas for no return. It is estimated that more than 260,000 U.S. sites have vents like these, together releasing over 160 billion cubic feet of natural gas each year, worth roughly half a billion dollars, with the climate impact of more than 90 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Capwell’s skid-mounted unit drops onto an existing site and captures vented gas at roughly half the cost of alternative solutions operators would otherwise install. Because the gas is sold or reused, the unit pays for itself quickly, so cutting emissions becomes a source of profit rather than a cost of compliance. Tightening methane rules across several states and Canada strengthen the case, but the economics stand on their own. The technology is protected by issued patents in the United States and Canada, has been proven in four field trials, and is now in paid pilots with operators in Texas and Pennsylvania.
“Flathead Forge backs founders who turn industrial waste into value, and Capwell does exactly that. For years, cutting these emissions was a cost operators tried to minimize; Capwell makes it a profit they will want to maximize, capturing gas that was vented or burned, returning it for sale, and paying for itself in months. That is the rare climate technology that scales because it makes money, not in spite of it.”
Noel Knape, Managing Director, Flathead Forge
“Operators are not ignoring these vents because they do not care. They are ignoring them because nothing could capture them economically. We built the unit that can. It installs on the equipment they already run, it returns gas they can sell, and it turns a line-item cost into a paying asset.”
Andrew Lane, CEO and Founder, Capwell
About Capwell
Capwell is a Houston-based methane-capture company that helps oil and gas operators recover natural gas from the small, low-flow vents that conventional equipment cannot capture economically. Founded in 2022 out of a University of Pennsylvania engineering project, Capwell’s patented, skid-mounted units capture gas that operators would otherwise vent or burn and return it for sale or on-site use, turning a compliance cost into new revenue while cutting methane emissions. Learn more at www.capwell.org.
About Flathead Forge
Flathead Forge is a Houston-based opportunity builder in hard-tech for water and critical minerals. Forge backs founders and forms companies that turn industrial waste streams (produced water, brines, and waste gas) into purified water, critical minerals, and other valuable products. Its principals are operators who have built, run, and sold industrial water and energy companies, and they put that operating experience to work inside the companies they back. To learn more, visit www.flatheadforge.com.
Media Contact doug@flatheadforge.com
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