This project was motivated by a desire to reduce the gap between potential and actual gas production from Devonian Shales in the Appalachian Basin. Esti-pates are difficult to make, but the drillable resource is usually considered to be between thirty and fifty times the reserves that are recoverable using conventional methods. The magnitude of the gap becomes apparent only when one considers that most estimates of 'the drillable resource are in excess of one thousand TCF. (See e.g., Mound, 1982.).