National assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources, USGS-MMS working paper

Abstract

In 1981, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) published the results of a 1980 national assessment of undiscovered oil and natural gas resources for the United States, including the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The publication, USGS Circular 860, was entitled "Estimates of Undiscovered Recoverable Conventional Resources of Oil and Gas in the United States" (hereafter referred to as Circular 860). The assessment provided an update to the previous USGS estimates for the Nation (published in 1975 as Circular 725). In 1982, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) was formed from a portion of USGS and other Department of the Interior (DOI) organizations for resource management of Federal offshore areas and for management of revenues collected from onshore and offshore Federal mineral leases. The HMS published estimates of undiscovered oil and natural gas resources for the OCS in 1985 in a report entitled "Estimates of Undiscovered, Economically Recoverable Oil and Gas Resources for the Outer Continental Shelf as of July 1984" (OCS Report MMS 85-0012). The agencies, both part of DOI, agreed in 1985 to conduct a cooperative assessment of the entire United States to estimate undiscovered oil and natural gas based upon a common date. These working papers provide estimates for the onshore and offshore geologic provinces of the Nation and summarize the methodologies, assumptions, and data utilized in the development of those estimates. (Figs. 1.5 and 1.6 are index maps showing the geologic provinces.) The methodologies, assumptions, and data differ from those used in the previous assessments, thereby making direct comparisons between estimates of this and previous assessments difficult to interpret. Therefore, these working papers have been prepared as a means of eliciting comments from peer scientific, academic, and industry experts in the estimation of oil and natural gas resources.