Using natural gas in enhanced oil recovery is far from new, but it does have a new lease on life in recent months as crude oil prices have remained strong.

Domestic oil production is on the rise, though it would be hard to know that natural gas had a role in the increase by listening to the public debate.

In their discussion last week on the abundant American domestic supply of natural gas, senators of the Energy and Natural Resources committee did not mention that natural gas may not only help reduce American dependence on imported energy but could also boost American domestic supply of crude oil.

In this video, Chevron describes how it is using high-pressured natural gas in a process called steamflooding to extract heavy oils from underground rock that are too viscous to tap by conventional drilling.

With oil drilling becoming more expensive, energy companies are using the latest technologies to boost efficiency of wells and lower costs. This video shows the process in action.

To read more on alternative methods of oil drilling, see The Solar Powered Oil Rig.