The STACK and the SCOOP might have the interests of energy companies in Oklahoma, and they have certainly attracted some Texas firms in exploring for new shale oil, but the Permian Basin in West Texas remains the nation’s big oil zone.
This week, the U.S. Geological Survey announced a new estimate of oil in place for the Wolfcamp Shale which is in the Midland Basin of the larger Permian Basin region. The USGS estimates more than 20 billion barrels of continuous oil exists, making it the largest such estimate the agency’s recorded of any formation in the nation, according to a report in Forbes. That makes it three times larger than the 2013 USGS Bakken-Three Forks prediction.
As Forbes pointed out, the Wolfcamp Shale is nearly 19 times larger than the USGS estimate of continuous oil in place for the Eagle Ford shale in 2012.