Wow,Talk About A Retirement Party! -- December 6, 2018

Updates

Later, 10:10 p.m. CT: afraid that the link might be lost -- 

USGS Report Expands Permian’s Wolfcamp, Bone Spring Potential Bounty. 

The lede:

Anyone who follows the flow of U.S. oil and gas knows the Permian Basin’s Wolfcamp shale and Delaware Basin’s Bone Spring Formation are bountiful, but a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) shows the enormity of their potential resources: an estimated 46.3 billion barrels of oil plus 281 trillion cubic feet of gas and 20 billion barrels of NGL.

That’s more than double the previous resource assessment for oil in the Wolfcamp.

I can never get my hands around "trillion cubic of natural gas." I need to compare 281 trillion cubic feet to other plays. See this link. Prior to the USGS report, natural gas reserves in the US were estimated to be 350 trillion cubic feet. Australia, 152 trillion cubic feet. Marcellus, 65 trillion cubic feet (probably will be revised upwards). 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas -- and remember, reserves are based partly on price of production; if the price of natural gas were to go up, reserves would go up. Incredible, absolutely incredible.

I doubt this will be reported on network nightly news. But we'll certainly see a story about a cat caught in a tree and rescued by fire department on the way to a seven-alarm fire. Or another story on severe weather.

I'm inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I'm clearly overly optimistic with my own estimates of 50 billions bbls of recoverable oil in the Bakken, but here it is, the very, very conservative USGS coming up with almost 50 billion bbls of recoverable oil in just a couple of pay zones in the Permian.

From wiki: "To convert to one boe, the USGS gives a figure of 6,000 cubic feet of typical natural gas."

So, 281 trillion cubic / 6,000 cubic feet = 50,000,000,000 boe. Assuming I did the math correctly. Big assumption. 

Original Post

 

The USGS, which is part of the U.S. Department of Interior, deemed its review of resources in the Permian Basin province as the “largest continuous oil and gas resource ever assessed.” The assessment released Dec. 6 was more like Christmas for U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, he said in a statement.

Wow, I need to get a life. I want to call it a night. I'm in a great mood, but exhausted. Loud 60's music recharging my battery (or is it batteries?).

I was ready to call it a day/night when a regular reader -- who seems to be as inappropriately exuberant about the US energy revolution as I am (😀) -- sent me a note.

I will post what he sent me and then get back to it tomorrow with links, etc. Also, tomorrow, a story about Trump and sage grouse.

But after this, I swear on the stack of bibles that I'm reading, I will not post any more notes until tomorrow. I will just read, watch the end of the NFL game on mute, and play 60's music as loud as I can without annoying the neighbors.

From the reader:

Greetings.

USGS report today puts Delaware portion of Wolfcamp along with Delaware Bone Spring at 46 billion barrels. 20 billion barrel NGLs.

This, combined with Midland Wolfcamp at 20 billion and Spraberry Midland at 4 billion gives 70 billion barrels technically recoverable resource from these formations alone!

There are several other formations/horizons within the Permian Basin. 

Paging Art Berman, indeed! 

Best Regards. 

Paging Art Berman! 😛

Sloop John B, Brian Wilson & Al Jardine