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Value
of Applied Research and the Natural Gas Supply: How the
U.S. Natural Gas Production Curve Was Built and How It
Will Be Sustained in the Future
Scott
W. Tinker1
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 have helped
build the historical natural gas production curve in the
United States. Research and the creative application of
technology will likewise cause natural gas production
to grow 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.
1Bureau
of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin,
University Station Box X, Austin, Texas 78713;
e-mail: scott.tinker@beg.utexas.edu.
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