Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC's Supplemental Information re the Line MB Extension Project under CP13-8.

Chapter One CRUDE OIL AND NATURAL GAS RESOURCES AND SUPPLY Abstract Prudent development of North American crude hydraulic fracturing, have dramatically changed oil and natural gas resources should begin with the outlook and prospects for North American a reliable understanding of the resource base, natural gas and oil supply potential. This chapter particularly as that understanding has changed describes the revised potential for North Ameri- significantly in recent years. It had been widely can gas and oil supply, identifies the technology assumed for decades that natural gas and oil pro- innovations responsible for expanding resource duction potential in North America was in termi- potential, and examines the implications for nal decline. This belief was shared by governments, resource development. It sets out recent ranges the public, and even the oil and gas industry, and it of assessments of the natural gas and oil recov- was one of the main filters through which energy erable resource base in the United States and supply and security issues were examined. To Canada, and looks at how these resources may be support this view, many observers referred to the prudently developed, leading to productive capac- Hubbert curve* delineating resource depletion, a ity potential, depending on choices made in three theory that was first demonstrated by analyzing areas: (1) access and regulatory regimes; (2)sus- conventional oil production in the United States. tained technology development; and (3) success in On the natural gas side, the perception of immi- managing environmental impact and risk, within nent declining supply led to expectations that the context of whether the size of oil and natural North America would soon be importing lique- gas resources is near the high or low end of cur- fied natural gas (LNG) to meet domestic demand, rent understanding. and thus to the construction of several new LNG regasification and import terminals in the United The outline of the Resource and Supply chapter States and Canada. is as follows: Summary and Key Findings However, the widespread deployment of recent advances in drilling and completion technologies, North American Oil and Natural Gas Resources in particular horizontal drilling and multi-stage Analysis of North American Oil and Natural Gas * The Hubbert curve was first proposed by geologist M. King Resource and Production Outlooks Hubbert in a 1956 paper for the American Petroleum Insti- tute. It hypothesizes that fossil fuel production follows Prospects for North American Oil Development a symmetrical bell-shaped curve, with ...