USGS strikes oil with largest O&G assessment ever

​​​​WASHINGTON – According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, an assessment by U.S. Geological​ Survey (USGS) has found a portion of the Permian Basin contains an estimated mean of 46.3 billion barrels of oil, 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 20 billion barrels of natural gas liquids.

This is the largest ​continuous oil and gas resource potential ever assessed.​

The Wolfcamp Shale and overlying Bone Spring Formation are in the Delaware Basin portion of Texas ​​​and​ New Mexico’s Permian Basin province. 

Although the USGS has previously assessed conventional oil and gas resources in the Permian, this is the first assessment of continuous resources in the Wolfcamp Shale and Bone Spring Formation. Oil and gas companies are currently producing oil here using both traditional vertical well technology and horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. ​

​According to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, "Christmas came a few weeks early this year."​