Western Oil Boom

Report Outline
Faster Pace of Exploration
Declining Reserves and Output
Extending the Petroleum Era
Special Focus

Faster Pace of Exploration

Effect of High Prices and Decontrols

The U.S. oil and gas industry is going all out to find what's left of the nation's petroleum resources. At remote sites all over the country, giant rigs are drilling two miles or more into the earth in search of new deposits. In Alaska, along the Rocky Mountain chain and in offshore coastal waters, drilling crews are exploring what may be the last frontiers of America's petroleum era.

President Reagan's energy policies have spurred a drilling boom that has been building up across the continent since world oil prices began skyrocketing eight years ago. The president on Jan. 28 lifted the last federal oil price controls, and his administration has pledged to turn the hard-driving oil industry loose to find new onshore and offshore reserves.

U.S. oil discoveries peaked half a century ago. Natural gas finds have fallen off since about 1950. At best, some experts maintain, stepped-up drilling will only briefly halt a steady fall in American oil and gas production and reserves. A recent Rand Corp. study conducted for the government suggests that “the U.S. petroleum industry is gradually running out of ideas as to where oil and gas may still be found.”