Gas depletion

[1] According to the US Energy Information Administration, in 1980 the world had enough proved gas reserves to last 48 years at the 1980 rate of production.

[3] As new technologies for natural gas production are discovered, the world's ultimate reserves can grow.

Although some predictions of ultimate reserve recovery include provisions for new technology, not every magnitude of breakthrough can be accurately accounted for.

This was mostly due to improved technology, which allowed the production of deepwater offshore and "unconventional" resources.

Important new developments were horizontal drilling and fracking in a geologic formation known as the Barnett Shale, underlying the city of Fort Worth, which is a highly impermeable formation and difficult to produce by conventional means.