MARKET OPPORTUNITY

Luca is focused on developing natural gas farming technologies to access this next generation resource and increase the recovery of energy from depleting oil and gas production assets. The energy contained within this new resource opportunity vastly exceeds that present in the popular shale gas plays being pursued today. Luca's core technologies create and produce clean burning, high value natural gas from low value deposits of coal, shale, and residual oil.

Hydrocarbon based fuels will continue to be a critical part of the world's energy solution for the foreseeable future. Annual consumption of hydrocarbon fuel in the U.S. is expected to increase from 34 quadrillion BTU today to 40 quadrillion BTU by 2035. Natural gas is the cleanest burning hydrocarbon fuel and farmed natural gas represents a sustainable resource for the generation of electrical power, heating, and transportation.

Today, natural gas represents a $150 billion annual market in the U.S. and accounts for 21 percent of the global energy supply. Domestic demand for natural gas is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 0.5 percent through 2035. Future natural gas supplies required to replace declining production and meet consumption growth are projected to come from shale gas and other unconventional resource technologies such as natural gas farming.

There are currently three types of natural gas production projects capable of impacting U.S. domestic energy requirements:

  1. "conventional accumulations" which tend to be characterized by small reserves with costly exploration and high initial production rates that decline over time,
  2. "unconventional accumulations" such as coalbed methane and shale gas which also have high exploration and developing costs, as well as a delayed onset of production followed by a high production rate and steep decline, and
  3. "natural gas farming" which is characterized by low cost exploration and development, and a steadily increasing production curve.

Of the three production project types, natural gas farming provides access to the largest volume of natural gas resources over time.

Bioresource Methane Potential Chart