Reserve growth effects on estimates of oil and natural gas resources

Many scientists think that the supply of economically recoverable oil and natural gas is geologically limited. However, as recently as early 1999, we experienced a glut of oil on the world market and the lowest inflation-adjusted price of gasoline in history. What is going on? While we cannot provide a comprehensive answer to that question here, we can describe one process that significantly affects the domestic oil and gas industry, a process that also will affect the global industry at some point—reserve growth (also known as field growth).