Assessment of undiscovered petroleum resources in Central and South America

The USGS has assessed undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources in 128 selected petroleum provinces of the world. Of these 128 provinces, 23 are in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean area. In the USGS 2000 Assessment, the provinces resulted in mean totals for undiscovered resource of 105 billion bbl of oil and 487 tcf of gas. The potential for giant oil and gas fields is greatest in the basins along the Atlantic margin of eastern South America, from the Santos Basin in the south to the Guyana-Suriname Basin in the north. The potential for giant fields is mainly offshore, in water depths up to 3600 m. The South and Central America region ranks third in the world for undiscovered conventional oil and gas behind the Middle East and the Former Soviet Union.