U.S. has more natural gas than thought

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The country’s natural gas reserves are much bigger than previously thought, according to a report released Thursday.

Thanks to new technology that has allowed producers to drill for gas in shale rock, the Potential Gas Committee in Golden, Colo., said that the country’s estimated reserves are 35 percent higher than just two years ago and have reached the highest level since the group started tracking the information 44 years ago.

The report comes as natural gas is being touted as a way to help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and cut emissions that lead to global warming.

“We knew it was there. It was a matter of how productive it possibly could be,” said John Curtis, professor of geology and geological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and the committee director.

The committee, a volunteer group backed by natural gas producers and utilities, estimated the country’s total natural gas resources at 2,074 trillion cubic feet, an increase of 542 trillion cubic feet from its last report.

The figure includes 238 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves as established by the Department of Energy and 1,836 trillion cubic feet of reserves it labeled as probable, possible, and speculative.

The report is similar to a study prepared last summer for the natural gas-backed American Clean Skies Foundation that found the country had 2,247 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves – a 118-year supply at 2007 production levels. The U.S. consumes about 22 trillion cubic feet of gas per year, almost all of it produced in the U.S.

Natural gas is used to generate about a fifth of the nation’s electricity as well as to heat homes. It emits about half of the heat-trapping greenhouse gas that coal does.