Luca to Seek Alternate Resolution to Authorize Clean Energy Production Technology
Luca Technologies, which uses biotechnology to create and sustainably produce natural gas, announced today that it will discontinue its 2920 permit application with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and seek other alternatives to deploy its technology. Over the past three years, Luca has been working with the BLM to permit nutrient injection to enhance and accelerate naturally occurring microbial production of methane gas. Since 2009, Luca has jointly pursued various proposals and ideas with the BLM. Through this process, the BLM agreed that a path to implement the technology was through a FLPMA 43 CFR 2920 special use permit. Since this agreement, the BLM had been processing the 43 CFR 2920 permit and until recently, Luca believed that this permit would be issued in a form that would allow the Company to implement its technology.
At a meeting with the BLM in May 2012, Luca learned for the first time that the BLM planned to abandon the specific coal monitoring plan that had been jointly agreed upon since July of 2011 and impose a coal monitoring requirement to the 2920 permit that would add an additional $25-30 million dollars to the project. The new conditions set out by the BLM exceed the value created from the project and such a monitoring process is simply not economically feasible. As a result, Luca has come to the conclusion that it will discontinue the 2920 BLM application and seek a different resolution to deploy its natural gas enhancement technology.
"We believe that private property owners have the right to develop their privately owned oil and gas technologies without BLM approval," said Bob Cavnar, CEO of Luca Technologies. "However, we have been willing to try to cooperate with the BLM in a transparent way to authorize this technology. We were shocked and dismayed that in the eleventh hour of the permitting process; the BLM would attempt to impose conditions in a permit that make the permit unfeasible. It is clear that the agreement Luca had with the BLM on a permitting process has been broken. Luca intends to examine every possible alternative path to allow the implementation of its technology in Wyoming."
About Luca Technologies
Luca Technologies uses biotechnology to create and sustainably produce natural gas. Its proprietary technology stimulates native microorganisms that reside in subsurface hydrocarbon deposits, such as coal, oil, and organic-rich shales, to accelerate the bioconversion of these resources into methane, the principal component of natural gas, which Luca produces and sells using existing infrastructure. For more information visit http://www.lucatechnologies.com.
Contacts:
BIGfish Communications
David Gerzof Richard, 646-912-6789
luca@bigfishmarket.com