An interesting bar chart that illustrates a point I wrote about recently in a RedState blog called The Big Energy Lie. “Resources” and “reserves” are not interchangeable terms. Reserves are quantities known with relative certainty that can be recovered or are directly indicated by wells that have already been drilled. They are a small subset of the total resource base. In the chart, natural gas reserves are represented by the dark blue portion at the base of each bar. And the growth in the resource base in the last few years is particularly notable. Activity and new technology directly led to the growth of the resource estimate, mostly in the shales.

Source: EIA Annual Energy Outlook 2010