Tight oil drilling lifts associated natural gas production While the number of natural gas-directed drilling rigs is particularly low right now, gas production continues rising, and is currently up 5% year-over-year. One key reason for the gas production boost is the significant increase in natural gas reserves and production associated with tight oil drilling and production. As noted in the Natural Gas Weekly Update of June 25, production of associated gas has been growing in those areas of the country where tight oil production has also been growing because tight oil production requires the presence of natural gas to drive liquids to the wellbore. The importance of tight oil drilling and production on natural gas supply is further illustrated by the 103% increase in Lower 48 natural gas reserves associated with oil, which increased from 21.9 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) at year-end 2007 to 44.5 Tcf at year-end 2012. […]