MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR GAS FINDING: HOW IMPORTANT HAS IT BEEN?

Phillip A. Ellis Vice-President Booz Allen & Hamilton Dallas This is the second of occasional articles on petroleum management issues. The first, on gas price forecasts, appeared in OGJ, Sept. 2, p. 44. Finding costs for natural gas in the U.S. were more than halved in real terms from 94 cents/Mcf in 1983 to 44 cents in 1989. A number of industry analysts and oil company executives recently have suggested that technology improvements contributed significantly to this improvement.