Assessing Gas and Oil Resources in the Intermountain West

Abstract

The goal of traditional resource assessments is to estimate the nation's potential supply of natural gas and oil resources. As part of our research, we examined four recent assessments: the U.S. Geological Survey National Oil and Gas Resource Assessment Team, 1995; Minerals Management Service, 2000; National Petroleum Council, 1999; and Potential Gas Committee, 20012 Although the assessments vary, they agree that the Intermountain West contains substantial natural gas and oil resources. These assessments estimate what is called the "technically recoverable" resource3-the amount of the resource that is estimated to be recoverable given certain assumptions about exploration and production capabilities. Resources are evaluated in terms of geological criteria and technical feasibility of recovery, but without economic or other considerations. These estimates, therefore, are not intended to indicate how much resource will likely be developed and at what cost.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA403332

Entities

People

  • Debra Knopman

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Drainage Basins
  • Economics
  • Environment
  • Environmental Assessment
  • Geological Surveys
  • House Of Representatives
  • Infrastructure
  • National Governments
  • Natural Gas
  • Petroleum
  • Production
  • Rocky Mountains
  • Spatial Distribution
  • Standards
  • Surveys
  • Terrain
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

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