According to Wyoming Public Media, Luca Technologies’ filing includes more than 30 pages of potential creditors including the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and the Office of State Lands and Investments.

The documentation was submitted in Colorado court on July 15.

Luca attorney Matt Micheli told the Casper Star-Tribune that it was a struggle to obtain federal permits, and finances became an issue once natural gas prices hit 10-year lows last year.

“Any time you have something that’s brand new, that’s never been done before, it takes a lot of time and resources and money to get it through and build a regulatory framework that allows that technology to be implemented,” Micheli told the regional newspaper, nothing the group would liquidate its farming technology as well as its assets through the proceeding.

Luca tested its technology on about 400 Powder River Basin wells starting in 2006, confirming in federal SEC filings that it was successful in producing methane.

While advancing toward the commercialization of its technology, Luca was able to lobby the state legislature to establish regulations of its nascent industry in February 2011.

Later that year the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission determined methane farming – sometimes referred to as microbial enhancement or biogenic gas generation – was possible under existing regulations.

“I’ll say one thing: They had a heck of a good idea,” Kennedy Oil chief executive officer John Kennedy told the Tribune.

The company is one of the listed creditors in the filing.

“[T]here’s a lot of people who believe that this is a possibility and it’s kind of the wave of the future,” Kennedy said.

In very simple terms, the Luca technology used naturally occurring micro-organisms to turn underground hydrocarbon resources, such as coal, into methane gas.

According to SEC filings, Luca’s investors included Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, One Equity Partners, Oxford Bioscience Partners and BASF Venture Capital.

What was once 110 employees is down to three after the company’s shareholders ordered a furlough.

Micheli, who is one of the remaining trio, said they were the ones its investors felt could “shepherd it through the bankruptcy and liquidation process”

Luca has stated in court documentation, the paper said, that its primary assets were intellectual property, including patents and proprietary information.

It also holds interest in 1350 natural gas wells as well as a gathering system in the PRB.

The bankruptcy process should conclude in about 90 days, Micheli said.