History and Background

Natural gas resources, like crude oil resources, are typically divided into two categories: conventional gas and unconventional gas. Energy security has been an on-again-off-again political issue in the United States since the first Arab oil embargo in 1973. Since the Energy Policy Act passed in 2005, natural gas and crude oil production in the United States has grown significantly. In the United States, the regulation of natural gas production has traditionally occurred primarily at the state level with most states that produce natural gas and crude oil issuing more rigorous standards that take primacy over federal regulations. The primary need for analysis of natural gas came with the recognition by the producers and the consumers that natural gas – a product of nature – is a gaseous mixture and that the composition of the gas will differ according to the reservoir from which the gas was produced.