Detailed Project Information Exploration Technologies Reservoir Characterization Advanced Drilling Improved Recovery Environmental Solutions Low Perm Sandstones Deep Gas Coal Bed Natural Gas Liquefied Natural Gas Reference Shelf Technology Transfer

Thirty-three states have oil and/or natural gas production. Our Nation has by far the world’s greatest number of oil and natural gas wells drilled (about 3.5 million, including dry holes). About a quarter of those wells are still producing—many of them at the economic margin.

Tens of thousands of oil and gas fields have been discovered in the United States. But a handful of giant fields—a number of them over 100 years old—account for a large share of the Nation’s oil and gas production.

The history of oil and gas production in the United States shows that the largest fields are likely to be discovered first. As many smaller fields are discovered later, operators’ economies of scale diminish. Accordingly, the costs to find, develop, and produce oil and gas in America are among the world’s highest—and those costs are on the upswing.

The United States is the world’s most thoroughly explored and developed oil and gas region. So our production growth depends increasingly on two things:

• Finding more giant fields and many more small fields among increasingly subtle or obscure geologic targets.
• Maximizing the economic recovery of discovered resources.

Fulfilling the potential of America’s oil and natural gas resources and maximizing their recovery calls for a concerted effort to develop and apply advanced exploration and production (E&P) technologies.

In addition, NETL directs research to provide solutions to environmental challenges that are among the chief hurdles to sustaining and even increasing America’s oil and gas production.