Potential Gas Committee Assessment of U.S. Natural Gas Resources

R. J. Burgess, J. C. Herrington, H. C. Kent

The Potential Gas Committee is an independent group of specialists from the natural gas industry who provide assessments of the potential for future discoveries and development of natural gas. The working members of the committee are geologists and petroleum engineers actively engaged in gas exploration and development.

The committee has recently completed its evaluation based on data available through 1988. This assessment indicates a sizeable resource of gas, in addition to proven reserves, which can be developed in the future under foreseeable conditions of technology and economics. New data in the year-end 1988 report include estimates of the potential for future discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico beneath water depths of 1,000 m and expanded coverage of the potential for recovery of gas from coal seams.

The committee prepares gas resource estimates for each of the geologic provinces in the lower 48 states and Alaska. Its estimates are given in three categories: (1) probable resources to be developed through extensions and new pool discoveries in existing fields, (2) possible resources to be developed through new field discoveries in plays and trends in which production has already been established, and (3) speculative resources to be developed through new field discoveries in basins and formations where production has not yet been established. Estimates for each province are given for minimum, most likely, and maximum potential, which express the range of uncertainty.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91022©1989 AAPG Annual Convention, April 23-26, 1989, San Antonio, Texas.