United States and World Hydrocarbon Resources and Endowment

Gary S. Swindell, Petroleum Engineering, Dallas, Texas

Having never seen the world hydrocarbon resources tablulated in one place, I attempted to assemble the information.  It is a continuing effort and certainty incomplete.  There is much better data available for the U.S. than the rest of the world.  Note the consumption to date and how it compares with the total.  Much of the endowment cannot be remotely considered as recoverable at present and may never be viable.

The data are from a variety of sources including Energy Information Administration, The Oil and Gas Journal ; SPE Paper 103514; 20th Century Petroleum Statistics (DeGolyer and MacNaughton); OPEC, and others, and include data from 2008 through 2018. The sources are continually changing.

http://geology.usgs.gov/connections/mms/joint_projects/methane.htm

http://energy.usgs.gov/factsheets/Coalbed/coalmeth.html

http://geology.usgs.gov/connections/mms/joint_projects/methane.htm

http://www.naturalgas.org/overview/resources.asp

US Hydrocarbon Resources - Billions of barrels Equivalent

 - leaving out coal resources which overwhelms the other numbers and methane hydrates

Coal reserves 69

Coal consumed 249

Coal remaining recoverable 921

Heavy Oil 100

Tar Sands 54

Oil Shale 6,000

Oil consumed 219

Oil reserves 35.2

Oil remaining in place 307

Oil resources 216 (undiscovered and other resources)

Tight oil - shale 78

Coalbed methane resources 29

Shale gas recoverable 111

Natural gas reserves 61

Natural gas resources 424

Natural gas consumed 229

US Hydrocarbon Resource Endowment - Billions of barrels Equivalent

Coal reserves 69

Coal consumed 249

Coal remaining recoverable 921

Coal remaining resources 13,032

Heavy Oil 100

Tar Sands 54

Oil Shale 6000

Oil consumed 219

Oil reserves 35.2

Oil remaining in place 307

Oil resources 216 (undiscovered and other resources)

Tight oil (shale) 78

Natural gas reserves 61

Natural gas consumed 229

Natural gas resources 424

Shale gas recoverable 111

Coalbed methane resources 29

Gas hydrate low estimate 1,648 (estimates are all over the map - this is a lower number)

World Hydrocarbon Resource Endowment - Billions of barrels Equivalent

 - no good estimate found for Coal resources

Coal reserves 3,550

Coal consumed 1,884

Coal remaining recoverable 3,467

Coal resources - USA only 13,032  (have not found any data on the rest of the world)

Tar Sands, oil shale 3,000 - (probably very low - the U.S. alone has 2,118 BBBLe in oil shales and Canada's tar sands are estimated to be 1,700-2,500 BBBLe)

Heavy oil 3,000

Oil consumed 1,276

Oil reserves 1,645- (does not include undiscovered oil)

Oil remaining in place 6,879 - (in known fields)

Tight oil (shale) 419

Natural gas reserves 1,230

Natural gas consumed 660 - (historical data was not well recorded outside the U.S.)

Natural gas resources 2,172

Coabed methane resources 720 - (probably very low - extensively developed only in the U.S.)

Shale gas recoverable 1,347

Shale gas resoruces 8,836

Gas hydrate resources - ocean - low est. 5,333 - (estimates are all over the map - this is a lower number)

Gas hydrate resources - land - low est. 889 - (estimates are all over the map - this is a lower number)

Notes:

Conversions

1 BCF = 166,666 BBL

1 short ton = 20,754,000 btu

1 ft3 gas = 1031 btu

1 bbl = 5,800,000 btu

1 ft3 oil = 1,033,131 btu

1 short ton = 3.54724 bbl BTU equivalent

1 mcf = .17776 bbl BTU equivalent

1 bbl = 5.62 mcf BTU equivalent

Gary S. Swindell, Petroleum Engineering, Dallas, Texas