Permafrost forms a grid-like pattern in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a 22.8 million acre region managed by the Bureau of Land Management on Alaska's North Slope. USGS has periodically assessed oil and gas resource potential there. These assessments can be found here.
Why do the oil and gas resource numbers sometimes change when the USGS releases a new assessment of an oil and gas formation?
Assessments regularly change based on our understanding of geology, as well as advances in technology.
As more is learned about the geology of a given formation, both from USGS research and from industry activity, a clearer picture of the potential recoverable oil and gas resources can be created.
In some cases, industry activity can show that a rock formation that was previous thought to have significant quantities of oil and gas does not. In other cases, advances in research techniques and tools can show a rock formation is more likely to have the conditions necessary to produce oil and gas.
A major source of changes in USGS assessments was the advent of production from continuous resource accumulations, such as shale and other “tight” or impermeable formations.
Learn more: USGS Energy Assessments
Related
How is hydraulic fracturing related to earthquakes and tremors?
Reports of hydraulic fracturing causing felt earthquakes are extremely rare. However, wastewater produced by wells that were hydraulic fractured can cause “induced” earthquakes when it is injected into deep wastewater wells. Wastewater disposal wells operate for longer durations and inject much more fluid than the hydraulic fracturing operations. Wastewater injection can raise pressure levels in...
How much water does the typical hydraulically fractured well require?
There isn’t really a “typical” fractured well because the amount of water used depends on the rock formation, the operator, whether the well is vertical or horizontal, and the number of portions (or stages) of the well that are fractured. In addition, some water is recycled from fluids produced by the well, so the net consumption might be smaller at sites that recycle. Water use per well can be...
Permafrost forms a grid-like pattern in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a 22.8 million acre region managed by the Bureau of Land Management on Alaska's North Slope. USGS has periodically assessed oil and gas resource potential there. These assessments can be found here.
Oil well being drilled into the Bakken Formation in North Dakota in 2015.
Oil well being drilled into the Bakken Formation in North Dakota in 2015.
Active oil and gas pad on Bureau of Land Management lands near Canyonlands National Park, Utah.
Active oil and gas pad on Bureau of Land Management lands near Canyonlands National Park, Utah.
National assessment of carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery and associated carbon dioxide retention resources — Summary
National assessment of carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery and associated carbon dioxide retention resources — Results
Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Cretaceous Nanushuk and Torok Formations, Alaska North Slope, and summary of resource potential of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, 2017
U.S. Geological Survey assessments of continuous (unconventional) oil and gas resources, 2000 to 2011
Assessment of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico-U.S. Virgin Islands Exclusive Economic Zone, 2013
U.S. Geological Survey 2011 assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Cook Inlet region, south-central Alaska
Assessment of Undiscovered Technically Recoverable Oil and Gas Resources of the Bakken Formation, Williston Basin, Montana and North Dakota, 2008
Undiscovered oil and gas resources of Lower Silurian Qusaiba-Paleozoic total petroleum systems, Arabian Peninsula
USGS world petroleum assessment 2000; new estimates of undiscovered oil and natural gas, including reserve growth, outside the United States
Related
How is hydraulic fracturing related to earthquakes and tremors?
Reports of hydraulic fracturing causing felt earthquakes are extremely rare. However, wastewater produced by wells that were hydraulic fractured can cause “induced” earthquakes when it is injected into deep wastewater wells. Wastewater disposal wells operate for longer durations and inject much more fluid than the hydraulic fracturing operations. Wastewater injection can raise pressure levels in...
How much water does the typical hydraulically fractured well require?
There isn’t really a “typical” fractured well because the amount of water used depends on the rock formation, the operator, whether the well is vertical or horizontal, and the number of portions (or stages) of the well that are fractured. In addition, some water is recycled from fluids produced by the well, so the net consumption might be smaller at sites that recycle. Water use per well can be...
Permafrost forms a grid-like pattern in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a 22.8 million acre region managed by the Bureau of Land Management on Alaska's North Slope. USGS has periodically assessed oil and gas resource potential there. These assessments can be found here.
Permafrost forms a grid-like pattern in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a 22.8 million acre region managed by the Bureau of Land Management on Alaska's North Slope. USGS has periodically assessed oil and gas resource potential there. These assessments can be found here.
Oil well being drilled into the Bakken Formation in North Dakota in 2015.
Oil well being drilled into the Bakken Formation in North Dakota in 2015.
Active oil and gas pad on Bureau of Land Management lands near Canyonlands National Park, Utah.
Active oil and gas pad on Bureau of Land Management lands near Canyonlands National Park, Utah.