“Just 600 million barrels of oil can be extracted with existing technology”
Ok, how about TOMMORROW’S TECHNOLOGY.
10 years ago, all the millions of barrels of oil and gas that were “unrecoverable” by yesterday’s tech are now recoverable in the Marcellas and Eagle Ford shale formations.
Those wells had lots of hole problems and rarely paid out.
It was almost impossible to get any oil company to drill stem test (open hole) in the Bakken (there were solid engineering considerations, even in a vertical well).
Fifteen years ago the idea of drilling horizontal wells in the Middle Bakken (not the Shale itself, but a layer between the shales where both the upper and lower shale are developed was a radical idea.
Fourteen years ago, I worked my first one of those wells as a wellsite geologist, one of the early wells in the Elm Coulee Field, which, when developed, doubled Montana's oil production--and before that development was even done, we were drilling wells in North Dakota, in the Bakken, and then Three Forks formation in the deeper parts of the Williston Basin.
Now, the drilling part is fairly commonplace, even though it, too, is being refined constantly (multiwell pads, walking rigs), and the production and completion end of things are being subjected to the greatest scrutiny to make completions yield better results.
It is a never-ending chain of refinements and adaptation.
When Californians decide the revenue is more important than dogma, when the AGW debunking finally reaches the halls of Government and cooler heads prevail, then the Monterey will be drilled, techniques developed and refined, just as they have been elsewhere.