Just wow. The U.S. Geological Survey says it has found the largest estimated "oil accumulation" in its history in a shale-rich part of Texas that is already being drilled. The estimated amount of oil alone would supply all U.S. needs for about three years.
From the USGS press release:
"The Wolfcamp shale in the Midland Basin portion of Texas’ Permian Basin province contains an estimated mean of 20 billion barrels of oil, 16 trillion cubic feet of associated natural gas, and 1.6 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, according to an assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey. This estimate is for continuous (unconventional) oil, and consists of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources.
"The estimate of continuous oil in the Midland Basin Wolfcamp shale assessment is nearly three times larger than that of the 2013 USGS Bakken-Three Forks resource assessment, making this the largest estimated continuous oil accumulation that USGS has assessed in the United States to date.
“'The fact that this is the largest assessment of continuous oil we have ever done just goes to show that, even in areas that have produced billions of barrels of oil, there is still the potential to find billions more,' said Walter Guidroz, program coordinator for the USGS Energy Resources Program."
Read the whole thing here.