To most, the key technology revolution is an electronic one, where advances like the internet, wireless communications, and the resulting instantaneous access to information are altering the way we work and live. The proverbial “Dick Tracy Watch” with its built in computer is really here. But there is another revolution taking place in the oil and gas industry.
Obscured by populist trends in wind, solar, and biofuels development, and environmental issues that cast a dark cloud over fossil fuels, innovations in oil and gas are much less obvious to the public. Energy entrepreneurs, however, are hard at work creating new ways to extract and produce oil and gas, fuels which helped make the electronics revolution possible. This article examines the culture of creativity within the US oil and gas industry and describes two trends that are, in fact, quite revolutionary.
Revolution Number One: Going from Traps to the Sourcebeds of Natural Gas
After decades of plentiful supplies, the US saw curtailments in natural gas production in the late 1970s. The notion that the nation was running out of natural gas took hold and in 1978 The Natural Gas Policy Act was passed under a culture of scarcity.
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