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.
Just don’t believe all the articles you read. Many are slanted to produce certain results.
The Bakken shales which generate and exude the Bakken oils contain the richest known organic content of any shale in the world. That, plus the trapping of the oil between the shale layers which provide high overpressures and natural fraccing of the rock, makes it a unique system, unlike anything seen elsewhere.
The Monterey has immense kerogens, but little chance at maturity. Taking many billions and identifying a small % of it as mature calculates to billions of oil possible; however, it is dissipated across vast vertical and horizontal volumes and does not make reserves necessarily.
Sorta like knowing the oceans contains billions of barrels of oil dissipated across the many trillions of barrels of water. We know it is there, but is it recoverable? No. Just no way to economically extract it, so it stays in the oceans, floating around.
I do enjoy the many postings on energy matters you produce.
I find them succinct, current, and of interest to us in the community of energy. Keep it up.