EIA's Year-End 2017 Crude Oil And Natural Gas Proved Reserves -- Report -- An Incredible Story

This is simply an incredible report at so many levels. And US production is greatly constrained, and reserves were based on WTI at $50 +/- a few bucks. Imagine the reserves if priced at $100.

Link here. How many nails in the Hubbert peak oil theory coffin?

Stronger oil and natural gas prices combined with continuing development of shales and low permeability formations drove producers of crude oil and natural gas in the United States to report new all-time record levels of proved reserves for both fuels in 2017.

Total U.S. oil reserves in 2017 exceeded a brief, one-year, 47-year-old record, highlighting the importance of crude oil development in shales and low permeability plays, mainly in the Southwest.

The new record for natural gas extends a longer-term trend of development, mainly in shale plays in the Northeast. Both U.S. proved reserves of crude oil and natural gas are approximately double their levels from a decade ago.

These new proved reserves records were established in 2017 despite production of crude oil at levels not seen since 1972, and record natural gas production.

Highlights are listed below.

Oil highlights

• Proved reserves of crude oil in the United States increased 19.5% (6.4 billion barrels) to 39.2 billion barrels at Year-End 2017, setting a new U.S. record for crude oil proved reserves. The previous record was 39.0 billion barrels set in 1970.
• Proved reserves of lease condensate in the United States increased 16% (0.4 billion barrels) to 2.8 billion barrels at Year-End 2017. Since 2009, to provide a clearer picture of U.S. liquid fuel resources, EIA features combined proved reserves of U.S. crude oil and lease condensate in its reporting.
• U.S. production of crude oil and lease condensate increased by 6% from 2016 to year-end 2017. Crude oil production in 2017 reached its highest level since 1972.
• The annual average spot price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil at Cushing, Oklahoma, increased 20% in 2017, from $42.59 in 2016 to $51.03. At the end of 2017, the WTI spot price exceeded $60 per barrel for the first time since June 2015.
• Producers in Texas added 3.3 billion barrels of crude oil and lease condensate proved reserves, the largest net increase of all states in 2017. The increase was a result of increased prices and development in the Permian Basin of the Spraberry Trend and the Wolfcamp/Bone Spring shale play.
• The Wolfcamp/Bone Spring shale play in the Permian Basin surpassed the Bakken/Three Forks play in the Williston Basin to become the largest oil-producing tight play in the United States in 2017.
• The next largest net gains in crude oil and lease condensate proved reserves in 2017 were in New Mexico (1.0 billion barrels) and in the Federal Offshore Gulf of Mexico (729 million barrels).

Natural gas highlights

• Proved reserves of natural gas increased by 123.2 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) (36.1%) to 464.3 Tcf at year-end 2017—a new U.S. record for total natural gas proved reserves. The previous U.S. record was 388.8 Tcf, set in 2014.
• U.S. production of total natural gas increased by 4% from 2016 to 2017, reaching a new record level.
• The share of natural gas from shale compared with total U.S. natural gas proved reserves increased from 62% in 2016 to 66% at year-end 2017.
• The annual average spot price for natural gas at the Louisiana Henry Hub increased by 21% from $2.47 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2016 to $2.99 per MMBtu in 2017.
• Producers in Pennsylvania added 28.1 Tcf of natural gas proved reserves, the largest net increase of all states in 2017, as a result of increased prices and development of the Marcellus and Utica shale plays.
• The next largest net gains in natural gas proved reserves by volume in 2017 were in Texas (26.9 Tcf) and Louisiana (18.4 Tcf) as a result of development of the Wolfcamp/Bone Spring shale play in the Permian Basin and the Haynesville/Bossier shale play in eastern Texas and northern Louisiana.

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The Book Page

The Bible, Homer (Iliad and Odyssey), and Shakespeare -- one could spend a lifetime on these works (and some college professors probably have) and never exhaust the treasure trove of writing.

In the Bible the euphemisms and metaphors are incredible. Character development, based on very, very few lines, is equally incredible.

Today, going through Genesis, starting again, my third reading in the past few weeks, I come to the land of Nod -- everyone is familiar with the land of Nod. I knew it was east of Eden but never thought any more about it until today. Today, from wiki:

"Nod" (נוד) is the Hebrew root of the verb "to wander" (לנדוד). Therefore, to dwell in the land of Nod is usually taken to mean that one takes up a wandering life. Genesis 4:17 relates that after arriving in the Land of Nod, Cain's wife bore him a son, Enoch, in whose name he built the first city. 

Others would ague that the "land of Nod" is a physical location.

But as a metaphor -- priceless. The land of Nod. East of Eden. The sun also rises. Seems like these could be the titles of some great books. 

Two things: the metaphor, "the land of Nod," to become a nomad, and then the most amazing thing: early in the Bible, written millennia ago, the writer opens up the whole issue of civilization, moving from a nomadic life to a "city" life.

Our oldest granddaughter spend some weeks studying the transition from nomadic societies to settled societies, the virtues of each.

Enoch: son of Jared, father of Methusaleh, great-grandfather of Noah, subject of the deuterocanonical Book of Enoch.

From another source: Enoch, destroyed in the flood; re-build, new name, Uruk or New Uruk;  in time the name Uruk ceased to be a name at all and became merely a word meaning City. In later cuneiform this city was known as Ereck, and at the present time the site is known by the local people as Warka.

Uruk, just a few miles northwest of Ur, lies about halfway between Baghdad and the mouth of the Tigris/Euphrates rivers on the Persian Gulf.