A company planning to inject nutrients into coal seams to “grow” methane in the Powder River Basin has pulled its application with the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

By Steve McManamen

The application is for an aquifer exemption, which is the normal procedure anytime a company wants to inject fluids into any zone in the state. The commission was scheduled to take up the issue at a meeting earlier this month.

But Colorado-based Luca Technologies pulled its application Wednesday morning following months of scrutiny over the “nutrients” it intends to put down the wells to stimulate the microbes.

Luca says the nutrients all are organic materials full of vitamins and minerals that are benign and will help the cells grow. But the Powder River Basin Resource Council, an environmental group, and some local landowners disagree.

The PRBRC thinks the ingredients are not safe and if injected into the coal seams, could impact the Wasatch and Fort Union aquifers used for drinking and for livestock. The group filed an objection to Luca’s project with the Oil and Gas Commission in May.

One stipulation of the exemption is to prove the company is not injecting into an aquifer that is used for domestic use or drinking water, or has the possibility to be used in that way, said Luca spokesman Stephen Reynolds.

“I think within that South Kitty Field (just west of Gillette) that we have found within the application, there are roughly 80 wells registered for domestic use in those coal beds,” Reynolds said. “You can argue that the potential to continue to drink it exists, therefore I don’t think there is any way we could meet the requirements of the standards.”

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