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posted by cmn32480 on Monday November 21 2016, @02:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the bblack-gold dept.

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."

https://www.usgs.gov/news/usgs-estimates-20-billion-barrels-oil-texas-wolfcamp-shale-formation

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 22 2016, @07:40AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 22 2016, @07:40AM (#431116) Journal
    I see the place has three refineries. And being California where something like a refinery couldn't be built in the last three or so decades, it means that they're all old. Also, it's located in Central Valley and downwind from Los Angeles, meaning even if there was no human settlement there, it would be polluted due to the atmosphere trapping pollution from nearby Los Angeles area, the agricultural activity of Central Valley, and traffic from Los Angeles to urban areas of northern California, particularly Sacramento.

    But sure, let's blame the oil wells.