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U.S. ranks 11th in oil reserves, sixth in natural gas reserves Imports account for 62% of U.S. oil demand, with majority of imports from OPEC countries; 3.8 tcf of annual gas use imported, most from Canada Kristen Nelson Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief
Sporting 22.7 billion barrels, the United States ranks 11th in the world for proved crude reserves, the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration reported in April. The oil is concentrated in four states: Texas (24 percent, including the Gulf of Mexico); Alaska (22 percent); Louisiana (20 percent, including the Gulf of Mexico); and California (19 percent, including federal offshore).
Top U.S. producing areas in 2003 included the Gulf of Mexico, 1.6 million barrels per day; Texas onshore, 1.1 million bpd; Alaska’s North Slope, 949,000 bpd; California, 683,000 bpd; Louisiana onshore, 244,000 bpd; Oklahoma, 178,000 bpd; and Wyoming, 143,000 bpd, the agency said in its country analysis brief on the United States.
The United States has estimated proven natural gas reserves of 187 trillion cubic feet, putting it in sixth place with 3.1 percent of the world’s reserves. Dry natural gas production was expected to increase by about 1.2 percent in 2004, to 19.31 trillion cubic feet, from 19.08 tcf in 2003. “High natural gas prices resulted in strong natural gas-directed drilling activity during 2003, following the downturn in 2002,” the agency said.
It expects increases in natural gas production to come mainly from onshore sources, although it also forecasts Gulf of Mexico production to grow “significantly.” There were an estimated 20,000 natural gas well completions in 2003, and that number is expected to grow to between 22,000 and 23,000 wells per year over the next two years.
Top natural gas producing states, in descending order, are: Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, Wyoming, Colorado, Alaska, Kansas, California and Alabama. Production continues to drop The United States produced some 7.9 million barrels per day of oil in 2003: 5.7 million bpd of crude oil, and the remainder natural gas liquids and other liquids. This production was down some 25 percent, the agency said, from the 10.6 million bpd produced in 1985. After leveling off in the mid 1990s, production fell again in the late 1990s, fell slightly in 2002 and 2003, “and is now at 50-year lows,” the agency said.
On the drilling side, natural gas rigs outnumbered oil rigs by more than five to one in 2003 (982 vs. 165). A total of 30,151 wells were drilled last year (20,011 natural gas wells; 5,694 oil wells; and 4,446 dry holes), compared with the peak of U.S. drilling activity in 1981, when 91,553 wells were drilled (43,598 oil, 20,166 natural gas and 27,789 dry holes).
Oil production from the Lower 48 is expected to decrease by 120,000 bpd, to 4.64 million bpd in 2004, followed by an increase of 110,000 bpd in 2005.
“Generally speaking,” the agency said, “Lower 48 onshore production — particularly Texas — is falling, while offshore (mainly Gulf of Mexico) production is rising. “Gulf production is expected to increase in 2004 because of new fields that came online in late 2003 and start-ups at the southern Green Canyon deepwater area in late 2004.
“By late 2005, the Mars, Mad Dog, Ursa, Thunder Horse and Nakikta federal offshore fields are expected to account for about 12 percent of Lower 48 oil production,” the agency said.
Deepwater Gulf production has been increasing and accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. Gulf output.
Alaska oil production, in decline since it peaked at 2.017 million bpd in 1988, is expected to decrease by 2.1 percent in 2004 and 5.3 percent in 2005. Ninety-eight percent of Alaska’s production is from the North Slope, and is transported 800 miles to the Valdez Marine Terminal on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. Almost half of North Slope production is from the Prudhoe Bay field, and almost a fifth from the Kuparuk River field.
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