Luca Technologies is a privately funded firm that is investigating the groundbreaking field of real-time biogenic production of methane. The Denver-based company, founded in 2001, has been researching the communities of microorganisms that inhabit such strata as coals, organic-rich shales and petroleum reservoirs. Luca is funded internally, says Robert Pfeiffer, president. "The founders of the company are all ex-oil and gas people, and they invested monies made from their past successes in traditional oil and gas companies." Luca has also brought in people from the life-sciences field, including three with doctorates in molecular biology, microbiology and biochemistry. "We've started to bridge the gap between the petroleum world and the life-sciences world," says Eric Szaloczi, chairman, "but it's hard, because the two worlds really don't speak the same language and don't have much in common." In its state-of-the-art laboratory in Golden, Colorado, the firm has demonstrated that anaerobic microorganisms, present in many hydrocarbon reservoirs, have the capacity to produce methane in real time. The bacteria feed on the organic molecules in the sediments and excrete methane as a byproduct. Building on that finding, Luca has been experimenting with ways to enhance the bacteria's production of methane by adding nutrients to the mix. Indeed, the company has found that groups of bacteria, given certain nutritional amendments, can make meaningful methane in short periods of time. Luca has put a major effort into obtaining cores, and now has the world's largest library of active anaerobic cores. To date, it has pulled samples from a dozen coals, seven oil reservoirs and five shales and other substrates, at locations from the Appalachian Basin to the Texas Gulf Coast to northern Alberta. Luca calls the active, methane-generating systems in the subsurface "geobioreactors." It has found that shales, coals and depleted oil reservoirs each host different groups of methane-generating bacteria, and these groups tend to be unique by area as well. At its lab, Luca is working to identify individual members of these groups. Obviously, the industry is well aware of the occurrence of biogenic gas, but such gas has been commonly believed to be of ancient origins. "Oil companies are beginning to realize that there are live systems in the oil, gas and coalbed-methane reservoirs they are producing from," says Szaloczi. The potential resource base for biogenic methane is staggering. Wyoming's Powder River Basin coal seams and Michigan's Antrim Shale could hold 86- and 184 trillion cubic feet of gas, respectively, assuming a methane conversion rate of just 1%. Luca's business model envisions several paths to commercialization of the process. It plans to pursue licensing of methane-producing techniques for resale to other companies, as well as implementing the process on its own properties. "We envision relationships with good operators that bring properties to the table, and we can bring our expertise, and together we can make some gas and share the sales of the gas," says Pfeiffer. Long-term, Luca believes microbial exploration could become a recognized subspecialty. An exploration program would progress from scoping of properties, to determining what type of microbial consortium was present, to lab work to fine-tune the system to achieve economic rates of production. Following that would come field testing, and finally full field development. "In a conventional play, understanding the biological systems could possibly allow an operator to drill more good wells and fewer poor wells," says Szaloczi. "It could be used as a technique to high-grade areas." Furthermore, Luca believes that some production techniques support the biogenic production of methane, while other techniques assault that production. "When we have disrupted the biologic system, or it's not working, there is a huge potential for reactivation." During its first two years, Luca concentrated on the initial science of finding geobioreactors and developing amendments and inhibitors. Now it plans to concentrate on four or five specific areas, in preparation for pilot testing and eventually commercial implementation. "We're anxious to try and do things that are clearly measurable," says Szaloczi. "We are doing research that is very important to the industry."