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U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION U.S. Natural Gas Reserves Up Again: 1996 Increase Marks 3-Year TrendU.S. proved reserves of natural gas increased for the third year in a row, the first sustained uptrend since 1967, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The agency's "Advance Summary" report released today shows a 1-percent increase in 1996 that brought U.S. proved reserves to 166 trillion cubic feet. Meanwhile, crude oil reserves declined 1 percent in 1996, to 22 billion barrels, extending the downtrend in proved reserves of crude oil to 9 consecutive years. Large oil and gas discoveries in the Federal offshore several in deep water continued to play a major role in increasing gas reserves and preventing a larger decline in oil reserves. Successful oil and gas well completions were up, as were oil and gas prices. Natural Gas The United States depends on natural gas for 24 percent of its energy requirements, and most of the gas used each year is domestically produced. Gas production increased in 1996, and reserve additions replaced 107 percent of that production. Future gas production increases to meet growing demand for cleaner fuels will require further reserves increases. Improvements in exploration and development technology have spurred the current uptrend, which reverses a steep decline in U.S. natural gas reserves that began in 1968 and ended the post-World War II period of rapid growth. Higher gas prices stimulated drilling and slowed the decline by 1977, but reserves continued to drop by an average of 1 percent per year through 1993. The use of state-of-the-art engineering and technology lowers field development costs, especially in deep water. A number of new technologies are being introduced for use in deep water, including ORYX's Neptune spar (a floating large-diameter vertical cylinder, supporting a deck and tethered to the ocean floor). The Neptune spar allows the exploitation of fields in up to 10,000 feet of water and can be moved to a new site after developed reservoirs at the current site are depleted. U.S. total discoveries of dry gas reserves were over 12 trillion cubic feet in 1996, up 12 percent from 1995, with over two-thirds located in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico Federal Offshore. Total discoveries, which equaled 65 percent of 1996 gas production, are those reserves attributable to field extensions, new field discoveries, and new reservoir discoveries in old fields; they result from drilling exploratory wells. Exploratory gas well completions increased again, reaching 972 in 1996. Total discoveries per exploratory gas well were down in 1995, but still more than twice the level of the early 1980s. New field discoveries were 1.5 trillion cubic feet, down from 1995, but 10 percent higher than the prior 10-year average. Revisions and adjustments to reserve estimates of old fields played a large role in increasing U.S. natural gas proved reserves. The net volume of revisions and adjustments amounted to 8 trillion cubic feet in 1996. The biggest increase in reserves occurred in Texas, the State with the largest gas reserves; Texas also had the largest total discoveries and the biggest increase in revisions and adjustments. Crude Oil Overall, reserve additions replaced 85 percent of 1996 oil production. Total discoveries of crude oil approached a billion barrels in 1996, nearly as high as last year and about 40 percent higher than the prior 10-year average for the United States. The Gulf of Mexico Federal Offshore accounted for 34 percent of the total, Alaska for 21 percent, and Texas for 18 percent. Meanwhile, new field discoveries totaled a quarter of a billion barrels, more than twice the 1995 amount and the prior 10-year average. Alaska had 53 percent and the Gulf of Mexico Federal Offshore 39 percent of the new field discoveries in 1996. Using a newly developed methodology to analyze survey information from the large operators, EIA surveyed 84 percent fewer operators and lowered survey costs, without sacrificing the agency's stringent data quality standards. EIA's U.S. estimates of 1996 proved reserves for crude oil and natural gas are statistically accurate within 1 percent. The full EIA report, U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Liquids Reserves 1996, will be published in October 1997. Copies will be available from the U.S. Government Printing Office 202/512-1800 or through EIA's National Energy Information Center (NEIC), Room 1F-048, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington DC 20585, 202/586-8800. Copies of the "Advance Summary" are now available from the NEIC. The Summary is also available electronically on EIA's Internet Web Site: http://www.eia.doe.gov.
EIA Press Contact: Thomas Welch, 202/586-1178 EIA-97-23 Contact:
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