Oil and Gas

The U.S. Geological Survey completed the following assessments of undiscovered natural gas resources of the Sacramento Basin Province of California 5008.

In 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed the following assessments of undiscovered gas resources of the Eastern Oregon and Washington Province 5005.

The U.S. Geological Survey completed the following assessments of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Western Oregon and Washington Province 5004.

During the last decade many producing countries have reassigned conventional oil and gas development rights to their national oil companies (NOCs). In fact the 13 largest energy companies, when measured by oil and gas reserves, are controlled by sovereign governments. The result is that the NOC’s will control a significant share of future oil and gas production. The international oil companies...

The U.S. Geological Survey prepares geologic assessments of undiscovered and undeveloped (identified) oil and gas resources (see National Oil and Gas Assessment website). In addition to our USGS oil and gas geologic assessments, economic research gives policymakers and analysts in the private sector additional information by scaling economic variables. Economic attributes must include the costs of...

Vitrinite is a maceral group that is derived from the remains of woody material from vascular plants and is composed of the thermally evolved products of lignin and cellulose. A maceral group is a set of organic matter types with similar properties and appearance. Vitrinite reflectance measures the percentage of incident light that is reflected from the surface of vitrinite as calibrated to a...

Thermal indices innovation focuses on the utilization of correlative microscopy and spectroscopy techniques for innovative approaches to advance the understanding of thermal indices development. These techniques include correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM), confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), and atomic force microscopy and infrared microscopy (AFM-IR), among others. Use of...

Hydrous pyrolysis (HP) experimentation is a laboratory method used to thermally mature organic-rich sedimentary rocks. It simulates petroleum generation in the closest available analogue to that of a natural system. Artificial maturation of sedimentary organic matter (SOM) to petroleum allows for the examination of its molecular chemistry to address the issue of anomalous reflection measurement...

Advent of the shale revolution since about 2005 caused increased demand for reliable petrographic measurements of thermal maturity in shale via vitrinite reflectance, which has long been considered the gold standard approach. The first standardized methodology for vitrinite reflectance measurement in shale became available in 2011. Subsequent interlaboratory studies demonstrated that significant...

The U.S. Geological Survey completed the following assessments of conventional and continuous oil and gas resources of the Devonian Three Forks Formation and Devonian and Mississippian Bakken Formation in the Williston Basin Province 5031 of North Dakota, Montana, and South Dakota.

The USGS has conducted several assessments of undiscovered oil and gas in formations in the Permian Basin of western Texas. This inlcudes the following.

The Alaska Petroleum Systems project has three main objectives: (A) conduct research that increases our understanding of Alaska petroleum systems, (B) conduct assessments of undiscovered oil and gas resources, and (C) deliver energy-resource information to land and resource managers, policy makers, and the public.