The Western Gas Sands Project Plan, Project Implementation Plans and Project Plan Document FY 78 are in various stages of preparation. Information gathering by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) of the initial data base for many of the project activities is nearing completion. Some base maps are complete and field investigations in the principal areas of interest are being conducted. Research and development by Energy Research Centers and National Laboratories were directed toward new tools and instrumentation systems, rock mechanics experiments, mathematical modeling, and data analysis. The Uinta Basin in Utah and Piceance Basin in Colorado have ongoing massive hydraulic fracture (MHF) experiments in the Upper Cretaceous tight gas formations. These are: CER Corporation, MHF 3; Gas Producing Enterprises, Natural Buttes No. 14, 18, 19, 20; Mobil Oil, F-31-13G; and Rio Blanco Natural Gas, 498-4-1. Colorado Interstate Gas Company has been awarded a contract to determine if productivity in low permeability reservoirs can be improved by reducing the interstitialwater saturation. They will be using two wells, the Sprague No. 1 and Miller No. 1, completed in the Dakota J formation in the Wattenberg Field in north central Colorado. All of the massive hydraulic fracture wells, with the exception of the Pacific Transmission well, have been fractured as planned. The Mobil and GPE No. 14, 18, and 20 wells show significant improvement as compared to original flow rates. The Mobil well is being tested for additional MHF treatments. Sandia Laboratories is continuing their research program in hydraulic fracturing at DOE's Nevada Test Site (NTS).