One of the public questions of major concern confronting our nation today is the sufficiency of our energy supply. In recent months we have seen voltage reduction and partial blackouts of electric service in partial blackouts of electric service in several parts of the country; the development of tight supplies of coal and residual fuel oil, and, of course, the subject of which we are so intimately aware: the decline in new discoveries of natural gas. While it is not my purpose today to launch into the reasons and possible solutions, it is important to keep the entire national picture in focus as we look at one aspect of picture in focus as we look at one aspect of gas supply.
We all know that reserves don't have much meaning until they are translated into flowing gas. Deliverability on a daily basis is the key to our ability in the transmission business to meet our customer's needs. Our mission today is to examine what has been happening in two of the oldest and, at one time, most prolific sources of flowing gas; namely, the Hugoton and West Panhandle Fields. From time to time I shall make specific references to our own experience, although the conditions now apparent affect all pipeline buyers in these two fields.
Although gas had been discovered some years before, production in large volumes began in the Hugoton and West Panhandle Fields in the late twenties and Panhandle Fields in the late twenties and early thirties. Initial pressure was about 450 psig in both fields.
Panhandle Eastern and the other companies began tying in wells and building gathering systems as the needs of each company developed.
