Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the United States Outer Continental Shelf, 2011

This poster summarizes the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s 2011 assessment of the technically recoverable oil and gas resources for the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The assessment considered relevant data and information available as of January 1, 2009, incorporated advances in petroleum exploration and development technologies, and employed new methodology.

Commodities assessed are crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas that exist in conventional reservoirs and are producible with conventional recovery techniques. A comprehensive play-based approach was used and an extensive effort was involved in developing play models, delineating the geographic limits of each play, and compiling data on critical geologic and reservoir engineering parameters.

Resource estimates are presented as undiscovered technically recoverable resources (UTRR) and undiscovered economically recoverable resources (UERR). UERR results are presented as price-supply curves which show the relationship of price to economically recoverable resource.

Estimates of UTRR for the entire OCS range from 66.34 Bbo at the P95 percentile to 119.11 Bbo at the P5 percentile with a mean of 88.59 Bbo. Similarly, gas estimates range from 308.28Tcf to 544.83 Tcf with a mean of 398.37 Tcf. On a BOE basis 55 percent of the potential is located within the Gulf of Mexico. The Alaska OCS ranks second with 30 percent. The Pacific is third among the regions in terms of oil potential and fourth with respect to gas. The Atlantic region, on the other hand, ranks third when considering gas potential and fourth in terms of oil.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90142 © 2012 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, April 22-25, 2012, Long Beach, California