There was a consensus that technology has in the past reduced, and will continue in the future to reduce, exploration and production costs. In the United States, for example, rigorous application of technology has resulted in the last decade or so in essentially flat supply cost projections. The relatively stable supply costs are due to technology and its impact in reducing production costs (William L. Fisher, "The U.S. Experience in Natural Gas: Revitalization of a Resource Base Thought Exhausted, this volume).

Initiation of diapirs is one of the least understood aspects of salt tectonics. Sedimentary differential loading and erosion are both effective, but not universal, causes of diapir initiation. A survey of 18 major salt-diapir provinces shows that salt upwelling is closely linked in time and space to regional extension. Extended salt basins typically develop salt structures, whereas nonextended basins do not.

The Jackson-Yegua Barrier/Strandplain Sandstone play is a prolific oil-producing trend in South Texas that has high average porosity (31 percent) and permeability (600 md). Nevertheless, it is characterized by low recovery efficiencies because of low average oil gravity, weak solution-gas drive, complex stratigraphy, and structural complications.

Geologic and engineering studies were conducted within fluvial/deltaic strata of a mature South Texas field to determine the impact of reservoir compartmentalization on secondary gas recovery. Stratton is one of several mature South Texas fields containing fluvial and deltaic gas reservoirs. This study documents the effect of depositionally controlled reservoir heterogeneity in a field with fluvially dominated reservoir architecture.