NETL sponsors the assessment of deep gas resources in order to help identify the technological barriers that limit deep gas exploration. As has been proven in the low-permeability resources program, basic information on resource volumes and nature can lead to industry’s acceptance of the viability of frontier resources and spur industry development, testing, and utilization of advanced technologies.

Recently, much of the Program’s work with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has focused on updating the 1995 assessments of deep, basin-centered accumulations. Work is focused on the Hanna, Anadarko, Arkoma, Cook Inlet, Holbrook, Columbia, Warrior, Los Angeles, Alaska interior, Colville, and Gulf Coast basins, as well as the Snake River downwarp, Willamette-Puget trough, and Salton trough.

NETL is also sponsoring USGS work to better understand the following: 1) the potential nature of deep undiscovered conventional plays in the Gulf of Mexico, 2) improved methods for identifying potentially productive zones in basin-centered accumulations, 3) review of the gas expulsion behavior of different kerogen types and oil from deep source rocks, and 4) the deep Cotton Valley gas trend of the Louisiana-Mississippi salt basins.

NETL supports efforts to advance an understanding of deep gas environments and to develop new technologies that can reduce deep drilling costs and bolster drilling efficiencies dramatically. These efforts comprise the  Deep Trek Program.