Great Links From Mark Perry -- December 21, 2015; Huge Story -- Barnett Twice As Large As Originally Estimated -- USGS

Updates

December 22, 2015: let's run the numbers --

• that recent huge Mediterranean natural gas find: 30 trillion cubic feet
• Barnett, revised USGS figures: 53 trillion cubic feet
• Utica, newly revised figures: 782 trillion cubic feet
• Marcellus, EIA revised estimates: 64 trillion cubic feet, "proved" reserves
• Bakken/Three Forks, USGS estimate: 7 trillion cubic feet
• Qatar: 800 trillion cubic feet, wiki, conversion 

Original Post

For the archives, this 55-year-old well is back on-line after being off-line since 12/14:

• 2275, 160, Taqa North USA/Pan American, Clara Kostad #1/Rival-Madison Unit 14, t4/59; cum 658K 10/15; (last produced 12/14; 55 years old)  

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Huge, Huge Story

From Mark Perry:

• Shale Gale. The Barnett Shale formation in Texas contains 53 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, twice as much as previously estimated in 2003, according to a recent report from the U.S. Geological Survey.

That was only two years ago. Rigzone also reports:

A new assessment now estimates the size of the Barnett shale play’s undiscovered, technically recoverable resources to be twice as large as originally thought.

According to a recent U.S. Geological Survey Assessment (USGS), the Barnett shale contains estimated mean volumes of 53 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of shale natural gas, 172 million barrels of shale oil and 176 million barrels of natural gas liquids.

The last time USGS released an assessment of the undiscovered, technically recoverable resources of the Barnett shale was in 2003. That assessment estimated a mean of 26.2 Tcf of undiscovered gas and 1 billion barrels of undiscovered gas liquids within the Barnett.

The 2003 assessment of the Barnett shale was released as part of an assessment of conventional and unconventional reservoirs of the Bend Arch-Fort Worth Basin province. The shale’s potential oil resources were not quantitatively assessed at that time. USGS decided to reassess the Barnett after horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing were successfully introduced, setting the stage for the current shale gas boom, said USGS scientist Kristen Marra, who led the assessment, in a December 17, 2015, press statement.

The substantial increase in the Barnett’s potential resources is largely due to the oil and gas industry’s switch to primarily horizontal drilling within the Barnett, paired with hydraulic fracturing. The 2003 assessment relied solely on vertical drilling.

Since 2003, over 16,000 horizontal wells have been drilled into the formation. The horizontal wells have helped produced over 15 Tcf of gas and 59 million barrels of oil in the Barnett.

 53 trillion cubic feet? How big is that? I don't know but the largest natural gas reservoir ever found in the Mediterranean might be a "paltry" 30 trillion.

My hunch is that when "they" re-assess the Bakken/Three Forks, they are going to find something similar.

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Also from Mark Perry: best comparison shopping sites.