“That petroleum is not the topic of discussion of this article. It is only referencing the oil that has already been “cooked” out. What you are describing applies to the Bakken as well. That may be future production but it isn’t the real concern of today.”
You are reading too many articles obviously.
I am a practicing Petroleum Engineer of 40 years who has worked exploration extensively, a number of years including the Monterey.
The company I worked for drilled hundreds of Monterey wells.
There is no way the Monterey is “cooked” as extensively to produce the large volumes mentioned in the articles.
The thermal maturity of the Bakken is a magnitude better than the Monterey.
While I don't begin to claim your level of knowledge, there are others that disagree.
Review of Emerging Resources:
U.S. Shale Gas and Shale Oil Plays
http://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/usshalegas/pdf/usshaleplays.pdf
July 2011
Executive Summary
Table ii U.S. Technically Recoverable Shale Oil Resources Summary
Page x
The thermal maturity of the Bakken is a magnitude better than the Monterey.
That may be true, but the "Technically Recoverable Shale Oil Resources" compared to the total petroleum in place is a comparable ratio when compared to the Monterey. The Bakken also has hundreds of billions of barrels underground but a small fraction of that is available without retorting.