49% of oil on federal lands in Alaska, the USGS has estimated
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Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The U.S. Geological Survey, in an estimate released in late June, said 49% of undiscovered technically recoverable oil resources on federal onshore land are in Alaska. The national total is 29.414 billion barrels of oil, of which the estimate for Alaska is 14.458 billion.
Ranking is by volumetric means of total estimated reserves for U.S. federal lands, with New Mexico (8.926 billion barrels of oil), Nevada (1.407 billion), Wyoming (988 million) and Texas (916 million) rounding out the top five states.
For natural gas, the national total is 391.553 trillion cubic feet, of which 111.034 trillion is attributed to Alaska, 28%, still the largest volume of any state, followed by New Mexico (85.39 trillion cubic feet), Colorado (60.12 trillion), Wyoming (47.138 trillion) and Texas (16.777 trillion).
For natural gas liquids, however, New Mexico and Wyoming top the estimate list, with Alaska, at 926 million barrels, coming in third, accounting for 11% of the total: New Mexico (3.92 billion barrels), Wyoming (1.57 billion), Alaska (926 million), Montana (601 million) and Colorado (375 million).
The majority of undiscovered technically recoverable Alaska oil is in northern Alaska, 14.059 billion barrels, followed by southern Alaska at 299 million barrels and central Alaska at 100 million barrels.
Alaska's natural gas distribution is similar: 104.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in northern Alaska, followed by 3.751 trillion in southern Alaska and 3.182 trillion in central Alaska.
For natural gas liquids, however, while northern Alaska still tops the list at 844 million barrels, central Alaska is second at 74 million and southern Alaska third at 8 million.
Federal lands USGS said the current estimate is based on assessments completed since the 1995 assessment, with 579 conventional- and continuous-type assessment units assessed or reassessed since 1995.
USGS said the report allocates "mean volumes of potential undiscovered, technically recoverable conventional- and continuous-type oil and gas resources underlying Federal lands of the onshore provinces of the United States."
The agency said resources not currently technically recoverable -- tar sands, oil shales, gas hydrates, gas in geopressured brines -- are not included.
The estimate includes lands with federal surface ownership, which generally includes mineral estate ownership.
This includes lands under BLM, the Bureau of Land Management, including BLM wilderness areas and BLM roadless areas; National Park Service, NPS, including NPS wilderness areas, NPS protected withdrawals; U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, including FS wilderness areas, FS roadless areas, FS protected withdrawals; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, FWS, including FWS wilderness areas, FWS protected withdrawals, wilderness study areas; U.S. Department of Energy; U.S. Department of Defense; Bureau of Reclamation; and Tennessee Valley Authority.
--KRISTEN NELSON
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