American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015 - 44

U.S. Gas Resource Hits A Record High
GOLDEN, CO.-The United States
possesses a technically recoverable resource
base of 2.384 quadrillion cubic feet (Qcf)
of natural gas as of year-end 2012, according to Potential Gas Committee estimates. The group says this is the highest
resource evaluation in its 48-year history,
boosting the previous high assessment
(from 2010) by 486 trillion cubic feet.
PGC adds the changes have been assessed in addition to 49 Tcf of domestic
marketed-gas production estimated for the
two years since its previous assessment.
"The PGC's year-end 2012 assessment
confirms the committee's conviction that
abundant, recoverable natural gas resources
exist within our borders, both onshore
and offshore, and in all types of reservoirs-from conventional, 'tight' and
shales, to coals," says John B. Curtis,
professor of geology and geological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines
and director of the Potential Gas Agency,
which provides guidance and technical
assistance to PGC.
Curtis cautions that the latest assessment assumes neither a time schedule
nor a specific market price for the discovery and production of future gas supplies. "Assessments of the Potential Gas
Committee represent our best understanding of the geological endowment of the
technically recoverable natural gas resource of the United States," he says.
PGC reports its biennial potential gas
resource assessments in three categories
of decreasing geological certainty: probable,
possible and speculative. It says in each
category it assesses a minimum, most
likely and maximum volume in each of
90 onshore and offshore provinces in the
lower-48 states and Alaska. It adds that
based on new exploration results, drilling
and production information and other data,
PGC members may reclassify resources
at the province level from one category to
another, and to proved reserves.

Gas Estimates
The committee's year-end 2012 assessment includes 2.226 Qcf of gas potentially recoverable from what it terms
"traditional" reservoirs: conventional,
tight sands, carbonates and shales, along
with 158.0 Tcf in coalbed reservoirs.
Compared with year-end 2010 numbers,
the PGC says assessed traditional resources
increased by 486.4 Tcf, while coalbed
gas declined by a nominal 400 billion
cubic feet.
When its assessments of technically
recoverable resources are combined with
the U.S. Department of Energy's deter44 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

mination of proved reserves of 305 Tcf
of dry gas as of year-end 2010, PGC
says the United States has a total available
future supply of 2.688 Qcf, an increase
of 486 Tcf over the previous evaluation.
While the committee reports these assessments on a national level, it says individual province-level assessment results
offer the greatest value for purposes of
analysis, planning and exploration.
"Our knowledge of the geological endowment of technically recoverable gas
continues to improve with each assessment," Curtis says. "Furthermore, new
and advanced exploration, well drilling,
completion and stimulation technologies
are allowing us increasingly better delineation of and access to domestic gas resources, especially 'unconventional' gas,
which not that long ago was considered
impractical or uneconomical to pursue."
As a result of a substantial increase in
the assessment of Appalachian Basin
shale gas, the committee says the Atlantic
area now ranks as the country's richest
resource area with 33 percent of total
U.S. traditional resources, followed by
the Gulf Coast (including the Gulf of
Mexico) and Rocky Mountain areas,
which together account for 76 percent of
the assessed total traditional resource.
Appalachian Influence
PGC points out changes in the total
assessment from 2010 to 2012 arose primarily from analyses of drilling, well
test and production data from these three
regions. The largest volumetric and percentage gains were reported for Appalachian Basin shales (primarily the
Marcellus, but including other Devonian
shales and the Utica), which the committee
says collectively rose by 335.0 Tcf. It
adds a substantial increase-21.6 Tcf-also
was made for the Eagle Ford Shale in the
Texas Gulf Coast Basin.
Resource estimates for the Atlantic
increased from 2010's 353.7 Tcf to 741.3
Tcf in 2012, the committee says, a jump
of 110 percent. The Rocky Mountain assessment area posted a 22.5 percent increase, moving from 344.0 Tcf to 421.3
Tcf between reporting periods, while the
Gulf Coast went from 506.0 Tcf to 521.0
Tcf, a 3.0 percent change. The North
Central assessment area saw a decrease
of 3.9 percent, falling from 21.6 Tcf to
20.8 percent in 2012, the committee adds.
Alaska remains unchanged at 193.8 Tcf.
Cretaceous shales in the Rocky Mountain area figured prominently in recordhigh assessments for the Greater Green
River Basin (Baxter and Hilliard shales)

and San Juan Basin (Mancos and Lewis
shales), PGC says. In each case, the committee says, the province's total gas assessment more than doubled from 2010.
Re-evaluation of another unconventional resource, the Niobrara formation,
led to a record assessment of 7.5 Tcf for
the Denver Basin, a jump of nearly 3.5
Tcf, the committee adds.
According to PGC, the growing importance of shale gas is substantiated by
the fact that the 2012 total assessed shale
gas resource of 1.073 Qcf accounts for
48 percent of the country's total traditional
potential resources.
Erica Bowman, chief economist for
America's Natural Gas Alliance, says
the PGC report again shows that with innovation and a better understanding of
the science behind natural gas production,
estimates about the size of the U.S. resource continue to grow.
"No other energy source has the potential to improve air quality, boost America's economy, and add to our nation's
energy security on such as large scale,"
Bowman says. "And now it is time to put
this clean and abundant resource to work
to help our economy grow by exporting
natural gas, increasing its use in power
generation, and employing it to fuel our
nation's manufacturing renaissance." Ì

Daybreak Kentucky Well
Produces Oil At 520 Bbl/d

SPOKANE, WA.-Daybreak Oil and
Gas Inc. says its Jackson H-20 oil well at
the Twin Bottoms Field in Lawrence
County, Ky., was put on production with
an initial flow rate of 520 barrels a day.
Daybreak owns a 25 percent working
interest in 7,300 acres under lease in the
county, the company says. The independent company headquartered in Spokane
also owns a 3-D seismic survey that encompasses 20,000 acres in the San Joaquin
Valley of California and operates 20 oil
wells in Kern County, Ca.
"We continue to see excellent results
from our wells in Kentucky," says James
F. Westmoreland, Daybreak's president
and chief executive officer. "The initial
production results from the Jackson H20 represent a record production rate for
us. We are improving our drilling and
completion techniques, and results of
these changes are being realized. We
look forward to our continued development
of this field, where we have identified in
excess of 50 additional drilling locations."
Ì

American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015

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