Natural gas resources are quantities of natural gas, discovered or undiscovered, that can reasonably be expected to exist in subsurface accumulations. Resources may or may not have been proven to exist by drilling. Unlike gas reserves, the resource estimations are independent of factors such as accessibility, economics, or technology. Categories of resources include:
- Proved resources — Resources that are known to exist and that are recoverable under current conditions (these are also known as reserves), plus proved amounts of gas that are currently inaccessible, uneconomic, or technically impossible to produce.
- Unproved resources — Resources that are estimated to exist based on analyses of the size and characteristics of existing fields and supply basins but have not been proved to exist through actual drilling.
- Undiscovered resources — Resources that are generally believed to exist in fields that have yet to be discovered.
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