Contributing about 25 percent of all the energy ever produced in the United States, Texas has for 50 years led the nation in energy production. Historically, the Texas production has been chiefly from nearly equal amounts of crude oil and natural gas, augmented by smaller amounts of natural gas liquids, uranium, coal, and lignite.
Despite the large and high level of production, the State's endowment of remaining energy reserves and resources is considerable--several times the total production to date. But the future proportions and quantities of energy fuels will not be--indeed cannot be--the same as in the past. Whereas production to date has been largely from conventionally produced oil and natural gas, future production must come in greater percentages from the solid fuels--coal, lignite, and uranium--and from unconventional sources of gas, synthetic gas, enhanced or tertiary recovered oil, synthetic liquids, and geothermal waters. The beginnings of the shift to other fuel sources are already in the making. The production of oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids has declined since 1972. During this same period both uranium and lignite production in Texas have quadrupled.