begin quote from:
(CNN)Geologists
say a new survey shows an oilfield in west Texas dwarfs others found so
far in the United States -- but the low price of oil means it will be a
while before rigs start pumping, a television station reported. The …
Mammoth Texas oil discovery biggest ever in USA
A pumpjack sits at dawn in the Permian Basin oil field last January near Midland, Texas.
Story highlights
- New estimates of the Permian Basin oilfield now project it to be the largest in US history
- Oil has been produced in the Wolfcamp area since the 1980s
(CNN)Geologists
say a new survey shows an oilfield in west Texas dwarfs others found so
far in the United States -- but the low price of oil means it will be a
while before rigs start pumping, a television station reported.
The
Midland Basin of the Wolfcamp Shale area in the Permian Basin is now
estimated to have 20 billion barrels of oil and 1.6 billion barrels of
natural gas, according to an assessment study by the US Geological
Survey.
That makes it three times larger than the USGS assessment of the oil in the mammoth Bakken formation in North Dakota.
"This
oil has been known there for a long time -- our task is to estimate
what we think the volume of recoverable oil is," assessment team member
Chris Schenk told CNN-affiliate KWES Wednesday.
The estimate would make the oilfield, which encompasses the cities of Lubbock and Midland -- 118 miles apart -- the largest "continuous oil" discovery United States, according to the USGS.
The
term "continuous oil" refers to unconventional formations like shale,
in which the oil exists throughout the formation and not in discrete
pools. The USGS estimates how much oil is considered to be undiscovered
but technically recoverable.
"Even
in areas that have produced billions of barrels of oil, there is still
the potential to find billions more," Walter Guidroz, coordinator for
the USGS Energy Resources Program said in a statement. "Changes in
technology and industry practices can have significant effects on what
resources are technically recoverable, and that's why we continue to
perform resource assessments throughout the United States and the
world."
Oil has been produced in
the Wolfcamp area since the 1980s by traditional vertical wells -- but
now companies are using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to
tap the continuous oil reserve. More than 3,000 horizontal wells are
currently operating, according to the USGS.
CNN Explains: Fracking 03:31
Morris Burns, a former president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, told the television station the low price of oil -- currently around $46 a barrel -- means the oil will sit underground for the foreseeable future.
"We
are picking up a few rigs every now and then but we won't see it really
take off until we (get) that price in the $60 to $65 range," Burns told
KWES.
"When we talk about that
many millions of barrels of oil in the ground, that doesn't mean we can
recover it all. We recover in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 percent,"
Burns said.
Last spring, CNN reported that "fracking" now accounted for more than half of all U.S. oil output.
Back in 2000, there were just 23,000 fracking wells pumping about
102,000 barrels of oil a day. Last March there were 300,000 fracking
wells, churning out 4.3 million barrels per day.
Future of fracking amid low oil prices 02:04
The
fracking production, led by Permian Basin, Bakken formation and Eagle
Ford, also in Texas, caused oil prices to tumble -- making the $100
barrel ancient history -- to as low as $25 a barrel early this year.
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