Growing and Indispensable: The Contribution of Production from Tight Gas Sands to U.S. Gas Production

Richard Nehring
NRG Associates, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Production from tight gas sands has been a growing and indispensable proportion of U.S. gas production. This poster discusses three dimensions of the contribution of production from tight gas sands from 1990 to 2003: (1) within the context of total U.S. gas production, (2) by comparison to other non-conventional sources of domestic gas production, and )3) the geographical and geological composition of tight gas sands production.

From 1990 to 2003, production from tight gas sands grew from 11% to 18% of contiguous U.S. gas production. Production from tight gas sands is greater than the production from each of the other major non-conventional sources of production (coalbed methane, gas from shales, deepwater); in fact, production from tight gas sands is nearly equal to production from all three of these sources. Tight gas sands production is highly concentrated in fewer than ten crucial plays. The future of tight gas sands production thus depends on sustaining and growing production from these plays and developing major new tight gas sand plays.