Considerable volumes of natural gas are known to exist in many areas of the western United States, but occur in formations with permeability and porosity too low to permit economic development with current technology. The Department of Energy (DOE) has implemented the Western Gas Sands Project (WGSP) to characterize these areas and formations and their natural gas resources, to develop techniques that will permit their development economically, and to speed commercialization of the resources. The Gas Research Institute (GRI) has instituted their project for field evaluations of reservoir fracturing to further develop the producibility of gas reservoirs in the tight sands by providing field data essential to studies of reservoir fracturing mechanics and natural gas production and to conduct field evaluations of certain advanced technology.