USGS: 20 Billion Barrels Of Oil In Wolfcamp Shale Formation lweb.es/f2222 12.05.2016
The Wolfcamp shale in the Texas’ Permian Basin province contains an estimated 20 billion barrels of oil, 16 trillion cubic feet of associated natural gas, and 1.6 billion barrels of natural gas liquids. “The fact that this is the largest assessment of continuous oil we have ever done just goes to show that, even in areas that have produced billions of barrels of oil, there is still the potential to find billions more,” said Walter Guidroz, program coordinator for the U.S.Geological Survey Energy Resources Programme.
OEF REVIEW:Oil prices have climbed by about 50 percent from their February lows, topping $40 per barrel. But the rally could be reaching its limits, at least temporarily, as persistent oversupply and the prospect of new shale production caps any potential price increase.
OEF REVIEW:South Africa will give the green light in the next 12 months to companies looking to explore for shale gas under the semi-arid Karoo basin. Royal Dutch Shell, Falcon Oil & Gas and Bundu Gas & Oil are among five companies which have applied for exploration licenses being reviewed by South Africa’s Petroleum Agency.
OEF REVIEW:The current crash in oil prices is sowing the seeds of a powerful rebound and a potential supply crunch by the end of the decade, but the prize may go to the US shale industry rather Opec, the world’s energy watchdog has predicted. America’s shale oil producers and Canada’s oil sands will come roaring back from late 2017 onward once the current brutal purge is over, a cycle it described as the “rise, fall and rise again” of the fracking industry. “Anybody who believes the US revolution has stalled should think again. We have been very surprised at how resilient it is,” said Neil Atkinson, head of oil markets at the International Energy Agency.
OEF REVIEW:The 2016 edition of the BP Energy Outlook outlines the ‘most likely’ path for energy demand by fuel based on assumptions and judgements about future changes in policy, technology and the economy, and develops a number of alternative cases to explore key uncertainties. 
OEF REVIEW:A handful of shale patches in the state, which would be the world’s sixth-largest oil producer if it were a country, are profitable with crude below $30 a barrel, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence. In the Eagle Ford’s DeWitt County, which produced more than 100,000 barrels of oil per day in November, the average well can be profitable with U.S. benchmark crude at $22.52 a barrel, $4 below the lowest level this year. Drive 200 miles southwest to Dimmit County, and drillers need $58 oil. The wide range of break-evens illustrates one reason why shale production from exploration and production companies has been more resilient than expected, filling storage tanks in the U.S. to levels not seen in 85 years.
OEF REVIEW:The shale gas boom has proved to be a game changer for the United States economy, bringing about an era of cheap natural gas that has helped to make the country’s industry more competitive. Europe has also been seen as a future shale gas region in recent years, but a Wood Mackenzie survey of global shale gas drilling activity highlights only three European countries – Poland, Ukraine and the UK – as having any shale gas wells scheduled for 2016.
OEF REVIEW:“Hydraulic fracturing remains a highly contentious public policy issue because of concerns about the environmental and health effects of its use. This Critical Issue Paper is written as a primer for the general public, journalists, and even resource professionals who may have difficulty finding objective, credible information about hydraulic fracturing of shales and other unconventional sources and related environmental concerns.
OEF REVIEW: According to the EIA, decreases in the cost to drill shale gas wells and continued investment in domestic production have allowed China to increase its development of shale gas. Even though shale gas is still a small proportion of the country’s overall production it could eventually help reduce natural gas imports, especially since China’s technically recoverable reserves of shale gas are the largest in the world.