Geologists tend to think of natural gas in geologic terms. However, Mid-Continent geologists also should think of gas in the Mid-Continent, and particularly in the deep Anadarko basin, in terms of the economics of the total system of production and delivery to market from the Mid-Continent area, and the overall economics of the energy industry in the United States.

Good exploration geologists have understood for years the importance of the interface between their discipline and others, but there are now more disciplines to which they must relate as they think of gas exploration in the long term. Geologists have included in their thought-processes operating constraints of the production phase of the business, but with the search for greater reserves, and particularly ultra-deep reserves, production technology has changed so substantially that a new and more comprehensive view of this developing technology is required. In addition, geologists must become economists in a sense, because the development of commercial reserves is closely related not only to the cost of production, transportation, and distribution, but also to the costs of all alternat sources of energy when delivered to the consumer.

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