The US Department of Energy has shifted its Tulsa, Okla., petroleum research office under the umbrella of the recently created National Energy Technology Laboratory.
Energy Sec. Bill Richardson said joining that office with the DOE laboratory structure "will provide for better technology exchanges between the oil exploration and production efforts we coordinate out of our Tulsa office and our natural gas researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
"The future of our domestic petroleum industry will be determined largely by technology, and it is important that we streamline the coordination throughout our research complex in developing advances that can benefit our domestic producers," he said.
The Tulsa office previously operated as a separate part of the DOE's Fossil Energy group. It now will report to the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, WV, and Pittsburgh, Penn.
The 26-employee petroleum office will remain in Tulsa and continue to be the lead site for coordinating DOE's oil technology program.
