Publications

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated mean volumes of undiscovered conventional petroleum resources in six geologic provinces of China at 14.9 billion barrels of oil, 87.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 1.4 billion barrels of natural-gas liquids.

This report presents ten storage assessment units (SAUs) within the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska. The Powder River Basin contains a thick succession of sedimentary rocks that accumulated steadily throughout much of the Phanerozoic, and at least three stratigraphic packages contain strata that are suitable for CO2 storage. Pennsylvanian through Triassic silicic

The Middle Eocene Claiborne Group was assessed using established U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessment methodology for undiscovered conventional hydrocarbon resources as part of the 2007 USGS assessment of Paleogene-Neogene strata of the United States part of the Gulf of Mexico Basin including onshore and State waters. The assessed area is within the Upper Jurassic-Cretaceous-Tertiary Composite

Using a probabilistic geology-based methodology, a team of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists recently assessed the remaining recoverable oil in 10 oil fields of the Los Angeles Basin in southern California. The results of the assessment suggest that between 1.4 and 5.6 billion barrels of additional oil could be recovered from those fields with existing technology.

From May 2008 to September 2009, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected data from more than 660 gravity stations, 100 line-km of truck-towed magnetometer traverses, and 260 physical-property sites in the vicinity of Blue Mountain and Pumpernickel Valley, northern Nevada (fig. 1). Gravity, magnetic, and physical-property data were collected to study regional crustal structures as an aid to und

A rich chiton assemblage consisting of more than 15,000 valves (shell plates) was collected by George P. Kanakoff (1897–1973) from Pliocene exposures of the San Diego Formation just north of the U.S./Mexican border. The assemblage includes 16 extant species, three extinct species (Callistochiton sphaerae n. sp., Lepidozona kanakoffi n. sp., and Amicula solivaga n. sp.), and three indeterminate spe

Detailed and reconnaissance field mapping and the results of geochemical and mineralogical analyses of outcrop samples indicate that the Devonian shales of the Broadtop Synclinorium from central Virginia to southern Pennsylvania have an organic content sufficiently high and a thermal maturity sufficiently moderate to be considered for a shale gas play. The organically rich Middle Devonian Marcellu

The Cook Inlet-Susitna region of south-central Alaska contains large quantities of gas-bearing coal of Tertiary age. The U.S. Geological Survey in 2011 completed an assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable coal-bed gas resources underlying the Cook Inlet-Susitna region based on the total petroleum system (TPS) concept. The Cook Inlet Coal-Bed Gas TPS covers about 9,600,000 acres and com

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated means of 86 billion barrels of oil and 336 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas resources in the Arabian Peninsula and Zagros Fold Belt. The USGS assessed the potential for undiscovered conventional oil and gas accumulations within the Arabian Peninsula and Zagros Fold Belt as part of the USGS World Petro

Demand for natural gas is increasing more rapidly than anticipated in Far East markets because (1) China has modified its policies in order to increase reliance on gas, in part to mitigate the growth in its coal consumption (which now stand at almost half of world coal production), (2) Japan has announced its intention to eventually shutdown its nuclear power industry, and (3) India, which current

We present new results and interpretations of the electricalanisotropy and reservoir architecture in gashydrate-bearingsands using logging data collected during the Gulf of MexicoGasHydrate Joint Industry Project Leg II. We focus specifically on sandreservoirs in Hole Alaminos Canyon 21 A (AC21-A), Hole Green Canyon 955 H (GC955-H) and Hole Walker Ridge 313 H (WR313-H). Using a new logging-while-d

The U.S. Geological Survey assessed unconventional oil and gas resources of the Upper Ordovician Utica Shale and adjacent units in the Appalachian Basin Province. The assessment covers parts of Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. The geologic concept is that black shale of the Utica Shale and adjacent units generated hydrocarbons from Type II organic material in ar