Natural gas, crude oil reserves up

The federal government said Oct. 27 that proved reserves of natural gas and crude oil in the United States “have increased for the fourth year in a row.”

That information came from an advance summary of the 2002 crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids reserves report from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration.

The agency said natural gas proved reserves have increased in eight of the past nine years.

The 2002 increase in U.S. natural gas reserves was 2 percent, with reserve additions 118 percent of production. Gas production, however, declined 2 percent in 2002, with sharp declines in the Gulf of Mexico only partially offset by large production increases in the Rocky Mountains.

Large 2002 gas reserves additions in the Rocky Mountains and Texas “highlight a shift from conventional gas fields to unconventional gas fields,” the agency said.

Eleven of the top 20 natural gas fields of 2002 are in the Rocky Mountains.

Significant reserves were added to the Powder River basin coalbed methane fields, the Pinedale field in Wyoming and the Wattenberg field and coalbed methane fields in Colorado. In Texas, significant reserves were added in the Newark East field, the nation’s 10th largest natural gas field.

Coalbed methane reserves increased 5 percent from 2001 and accounted for 10 percent of U.S. dry gas proved reserves. Coalbed methane production increased 3 percent from 2001 and accounted for 8 percent of U.S. dry gas production.

The agency said the majority of natural gas total discoveries in 2002 were from extensions of existing conventional and unconventional gas fields.

Crude reserves up 1 percent