The Western Gas Sands Project Plan, Project Implementation Plans and Project Plan Document FY 78 are in various stages of preparation. Several related studies are being conducted. Resource assessment activities reported consist of those conducted by U.S.G.S. in Denver and the outcrop study of the eastern Uinta Basin conducted by CK Geoenergy Corporation. Information gathering by U.S.G.S. 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. Laboratory R and D activities funded by ERDA have been directed toward new tools and instrumentation systems, rock mechanics experiments, mathematical modeling and data analysis. These activities have primarily been performed by the national laboratories, U.S.G.S. and ERDA's Energy Research Centers. Many items are arbitrarily reported in this category and in the section devoted to the laboratories and Energy Research Centers even though they require considerable field experimentation. The positive results of system development and data analysis techniques by Sandia and U.S.G.S.-Menlo Park in determining fracture orientation have been very encouraging. The Field R and D section primarily reports on joint government/industry experiments. The Uinta Basin in Utah and Piceance Basin in Colorado have had seven massive hydraulic fracture (MHF) experiments in the Upper Cretaceous tight gas formations. There are: Austral Oil Company, Federal 3-94; CER Corporation, MHF-3; Gas Producing Enterprises, Natural Buttes No. 14, 18, 19, 20; Mobil Oil, F-31-13G; Pacific Transmission, Sand Ridge II Federal No. 23-25; Rio Blanco Natural Gas, 498-4-1; and Texas American Oil and Western Oil Shale, No. 1 Home Federal.