Posted on 11/16/2016 4:41:20 PM PST by Kaslin
Tuesday the U.S. Geological Survey announced the largest ever assessment of “continuous oil” ever made in the United States. The Wolfcamp shale in the area of Midland, Texas is estimated to contain three times the oil and gas of the Bakken shale formation in Montana and North Dakota. From the USGS:
The Wolfcamp shale in the Midland Basin portion of Texas’ Permian Basin province contains an estimated mean of 20 billion barrels of oil, 16 trillion cubic feet of associated natural gas, and 1.6 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, according to an assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey. This estimate is for continuous (unconventional) oil, and consists of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources.
The estimate of continuous oil in the Midland Basin Wolfcamp shale assessment is nearly three times larger than that of the 2013 USGS Bakken-Three Forks resource assessment, making this the largest estimated continuous oil accumulation that USGS has assessed in the United States to date.
“The fact that this is the largest assessment of continuous oil we have ever done just goes to show that, even in areas that have produced billions of barrels of oil, there is still the potential to find billions more,” said Walter Guidroz, program coordinator for the USGS Energy Resources Program.
Continuous oil refers to resources that are spread out rather than concentrated into a single area. So why is this massive amount of oil and gas just being assessed as recoverable now? Because technology has changed:
Oil has been produced using traditional vertical well technology. However, more recently, oil and gas companies have been using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, and more than 3,000 horizontal wells have been drilled and completed in the Midland Basin Wolfcamp section.
The Fort Worth Star Telegram reports this backs up industry claims that the area could be the 2nd largest oil and gas field in the world:
The estimate lends credence to the assertion from Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield that the Permian’s shale could hold as much as 75 billion barrels, making it second only to Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar field. Irving-based Pioneer has been increasing its production targets all year as drilling in the Wolfcamp produced bigger gushers than the company’s engineers and geologists forecast.
So is the oil ‘replenishing’?
It could be.
Peak what? but it was science!
Happy days are here again!
There must be a lost city at the center of the earth where dinosaurs continue going through the life cycle.
Do you actually know what you ask ?
Drill Baby Drill!!!
Thank you dead dinosaurs...we won’t all have to drive Priuses.
I drink your milkshake?
US consumes almost 20 million barrels of oil a day, so 20 billion divided by 20 million that is about 3 years worth of oil in a shitty rough estimate.
The big news here is that it was not discovered...So there might be even more oil out there. Its not an exhausted natural resource if you keep finding it.
We will get tired of winning!
Think of all the accessible and profitable finds that have not been developed because of the EPA and regulatory burdens.
Trump will have us as a major energy exporter in short order. That means good jobs and lots of revenue.
Peak Oil.
I had drag out arguments with starry eyed liberals just convinced we would soon run out of oil.
Once an idiot always an idiot.
Exactly. And we cracked the earth's mantle and drained the Gulf of Mexico. ;)
Happy days are here again!
Indeed!!
And why do we keep “ findin” oil ?
Remember predictions of “ Peak Oil” by the “expert” prognosticators
If you do, please remind those experts who would love to forget about their Dire predictions
How do you spot a self proclaimed experts?
They are always wrong
Oh well, persuasive idiots have been the bane of my existence for longer than I wish to remember
Not likely. This discovery is in a sedimentary basin where we expect to find ancient organic deposits.
Some believe that the earth produces oil.
Some of the largest reserves are in deep ocean locales...where Dino and his friends never roamed.
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