From Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin (www.beg.utexas.edu).
For more information, please contact the author.

 

Austin Geological Society Monthly Meeting, Austin, Texas, April 2, 2001

Natural Gas Supply: How the U.S. Natural Gas Production Curve
Was Built and How It Will be Sustained in the Future

Dr. Scott W. Tinker, Director
Bureau of Economic Geology
The University of Texas at Austin

ABSTRACT

Natural gas is the energy of choice for the next 15 to 20 years. Data show that Federal and private investment in research, and the creative application of technology helped build the historical natural gas production curve in the United States. Research and the creative application of technology will likewise grow natural gas production and slow oil production decline in the future. The private energy sector has decreased fossil energy research funding significantly over the past decade. The American public must get behind Federal support of fossil energy research if we are to avoid dependence on foreign sources of natural gas. The private sector can also be proactive by creating a Private Energy Research Foundation (PERF) to help fund vital fossil energy research.