How the Gas Research Institute (GRI) Helped Transform the US Natural Gas Industry

In the 1970s, natural gas was thought to be “a fuel with no future.” To change this, the industry formed a research and development (R&D) arm called the Gas Research Institute (GRI). Since 1978, the GRI R&D program has resulted in 132 commercial products, processes, or techniques that have helped turn natural gas into “the fuel of the future.” In doing this, GRI achieved a project success rate of 30 percent—or over twice the US industry-wide average—and a benefit-to-cost ratio of at least seven to one. This success is widely credited to the use of the project appraisal methodology (PAM), a multiattribute, decision analytic scoring function and group advisory process. PAM can be credited with half of the benefits achieved. These benefits are at least $11 billion and as high as $132 billion.