Non-conventional gases

Gas production in the United States has been growing steadily since 2005, even though it had been recognized for some ten years that domestic resources were running out. This has been made possible by massive access to so-called unconventional resources, mainly shale gas, at costs reduced by the use of new technologies and major productivity efforts. The search for and exploitation of unconventional gas is underway in many other countries. In this dossier, we offer a brief review of the different types of unconventional gas: their origin and characteristics, their production methods and the environmental aspects of this production. It also summarizes current estimates of technically recoverable unconventional gas resources.