Efficient recovery of our nation’s fossil fuel resources in an environmentally safe manner requires the development and application of new technologies that address the unique nature and challenging locations of many of our remaining oil and natural gas accumulations. The National Energy Technology Laboratory's (NETL) research projects are designed to help catalyze the development of these new technologies, provide objective data to help quantify the environmental and safety risks of oil and gas development, and characterize emerging energy resources like methane hydrates.
NETL research focuses on technologies that reduce the cost, increase the efficiency, and reduce the environmental risk of finding and producing natural gas in unconventional reservoirs, most importantly fractured shale.
Shale Gas | Environmental | Other Natural Gas Resources
NETL research supports development of technologies that can help offshore Gulf of Mexico discoveries progress to production quickly and safely and to maximize recovery from fields that are currently at the edge of industry capabilities.
Offshore Architecture | Environmental | Other Deepwater Technology
NETL research supports the development, demonstration, and application of enhanced oil recovery technologies to tap large deposits of crude oil trapped in mature U.S. oil fields. Additional research focuses on oil resources that are difficult to produce because of the character of the hydrocarbons or the rock in which they are found.
CO2 EOR | Other EOR & Oil Resources | Environmental
Methane hydrate is a mixture of methane and water molecules that form an ice-like material within Arctic onshore or deepwater offshore sediments. NETL research focuses on understanding how methane hydrate forms and behaves, its potential as an energy resource, and its role in the Earth’s carbon cycle.
DOE/NETL Projects