Research on western gas sands is conducted by the US Department of Energy's Morgantown Technology Center to encourage the development of very low permeability gas sands in the western United States. The current search is an outgrowth of earlier Government research on tight sands in which nuclear and massive hydraulics fracturing stimulations were tested without definitive results. Based on input from the gas industry, universities, and geologic and engineering consulting firms, activites were broadened to include fundamental research and development. Consequently, the focus of the research for the last several years has been on improving diagnostic instruments for evaluating reservoir and stimulation performances, interpreting geophysical and engineering data, and stimulation techniques. Intergrated geologic studies of three depositional basins that contain tight lenticular sandstone units have also been pursued as part of this new effort. To date, the following tentative conclusions have been formulated: The permeability of the tight gas sands can be as much as three to four orders of magnitude lower than that of conventional gas deposits. Nineteen western geologic basins and trends have been identified that contain significant volumes of tight gas. Gas resources in the priority geologic basins have been estimated as follows: Piceance Basin, 420 Tcf.; Greater Green River Basin, 4971 Tcf.; and Uinta Basin, 21 Tcf. The critical parameters for successfully developing tight sandstone resources are the presence of natural fractures within a reservoir and the effective propped length of hydraulically induced fractures. Stimulation technology is presently insufficient to efficiently recover gas from lenticular, tight reservoirs. 15 refs., 14 figs., 3 tabs.