Natural gas is abundant across the United States, giving Americans a natural resource advantage that has boosted our ability to:

  • achieve cleaner air;
  • improve reliability; and
  • enhance global competitiveness.

Estimates of U.S. natural gas resources evolve and usually grow since the ability to detect and extract natural gas improves as technology improves.

With advances in technology, immense quantities of natural gas once considered beyond reach have recently become economic to produce.

  • In the mid- 2000s, energy producers successfully and economically combined hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.
  • That technological breakthrough unlocked a vast untapped natural gas resource in shale rock.

Future technological breakthroughs could –and probably will – result in another significant increase in resource estimates.

LEARN MORE ABOUT RESOURCE ESTIMATES

  • The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that technically recoverable resources of dry natural gas in the United States is 2,828 Trillion cubic feet (Tcf– enough to last about 92 years at current production rates. https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=58&t=8
  • The Potential Gas Committee estimates that technically recoverable natural gas resources is over 3,374 Tcf – enough to last 110 years at current production rates. http://potentialgas.org/

RELIABILITY
Natural gas has a record of outstanding reliability.

Infographic:  How Natural Gas Plants Partner With Renewables for Reliability, Pace Global Inc.

  • “Because natural gas power plants can quickly ramp up or down the amount of power they generate, they’re helping integrate intermittent solar power onto the grid by providing quick-responding back-up.”

RBN Energy, Extreme Weather Resilience of Natural Gas: How Natural Gas Performed Under Three Different Weather Scenarios, 2018

  • “Ultimately, the greatest test of resilience is whether commitments to customers can be met regardless of the degree of stress that is caused by a weather event. As this study demonstrates, the natural gas industry passes this test with flying colors.”

Natural Gas Council White Paper:  Natural Gas Systems:  Reliable and Resilient, 2019

  • “History demonstrates that disruption of firm pipeline transportation and/or storage services resulting from severe weather events are extremely rare.”

How Natural Gas Made Florida’s Grid More Reliable and Resilient, Infographic, 2018

  • “Embracing natural gas has helped make Florida’s electricity grid more reliable than ever.”