USGS estimates 20 billion barrels of oil in Texas Wolfcamp Shale Formation
USGS estimates 20 billion barrels of oil in Texas Wolfcamp Shale Formation
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.
"Changes in
technology and industry
practices can have significant effects on what resources are technically recoverable, and
that's why we continue to
perform resource assessments throughout the United States and the world."
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