Global shale gas and tight oil production

Let’s look at the unconventional oil and gas production potentials of countries other than the US.

The United States has access to significant shale resources. In the Annual Energy Outlook 2014, EIA (Energy Information Administration) estimated that the United States has approximately 610 Tcf of technically recoverable shale natural gas resources and 59 billion barrels of technically recoverable tight oil resources.

As a result, the United States is ranked second globally after Russia in shale oil resources and is ranked fourth globally after China, Argentina and Algeria in shale natural gas resources.

The US Energy Information Agency (EIA) estimates China holds the world’s largest shale reserves of 31.6 tcm (1,275 tcf) of technically recoverable shale gas reserves.

China’s Ministry of Land and Resources has a more conservative estimate of 25 tcm. Both assessments are higher than the 24.4 tcm (862 tcf) of shale gas reserves estimated for the US (the second largest).

The global natural gas consumption in 2011 was about 110 Tcf. The global estimates have increased in the last 30 years from about 3,000 Tcf to 8,000 Tcf of natural gas mostly in Russia, Iran, Qatar, and Turkmenistan.

References:

• US Energy Information Administration (EIA), “Shale in the United States,” December 15, 2016