Products made from oil and natural gas are all around us. Because these materials are embedded in our everyday life, ensuring oil and natural gas resources remain abundant, affordable, and reliable is a key priority for the Trump Administration.
Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office
March 31, 2026
minute read time
Products made from oil and natural gas are all around us. Consider a typical morning: the alarm clock rings, and your smartphone lights up on the nightstand. Both contain plastics, circuit boards, and insulation made from chemical feedstocks crucial for manufacturing. You step out of bed and onto a carpet or rug made with synthetic fibers from these same resources.
In the kitchen, your coffee maker, food packaging, storage containers, and appliances all rely on materials sourced from these vital feedstocks. These are just a few examples; hundreds more exist, from clothing to everyday personal care items like toothpaste tubes, toothbrush bristles and cosmetics —to even medical devices that help keep us healthy.
Because these materials are embedded in our everyday life, ensuring oil and natural gas resources remain abundant, affordable, and reliable is a key priority for the Trump Administration. That’s why the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office (HGEO) is committed to strengthening the resilience of U.S. oil and natural gas production and infrastructure reliability.
To support these efforts, HGEO’s Office of Oil and Gas focuses on increasing the recovery factor in unconventional reservoirs, lowering the break-even cost of primary recovery operations, transforming produced water into an economic resource, and improving midstream efficiency—strengthening U.S. energy leadership at home and abroad.
In 2025, the United States set a record by exporting more than 100 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas in a single year—the first country ever to achieve this milestone. The United States is also the world’s largest natural gas producer, a position that supports global energy security while powering everyday life at home.
These accomplishments underscore the essential role oil and natural gas play in the modern world, powering households, industry, and next-generation technologies while advancing American energy dominance.
Read HGEO's Products Made from Oil and Natural Gas infographic to learn more about the resources found in everyday products. To keep up to date with future HGEO news and announcements, sign up for our news alerts.