Around 310 barrels of recoverable oil is in the US as 50 bbo were added last year, said Rystard Energy
According to Rystard Energy, the US has again become the largest holder of recoverable oil in the world, surpassing Saudi Arabia. About 50 bbo has been added by the US in the last one year, bringing their count to 310 barrels of recoverable oil.
This vast increase of estimated recoverable oil in the US over the past year is largely due to increase in hydraulic fracturing operations in the Permian basin, where there are more reserves per well drilled, according to Rystard. Texas has around 100bn barrels of recoverable oil, out of which 90 per cent is from shale or other tight formations.
The numbers of “recoverable oil” include expected production from future discoveries as deemed likely by Rystad Energy. Out of one trillion barrels of yet undiscovered oil globally, shale oil makes up close to 300 bbo, according to Rystad Energy’s database. About 78 per cent of these yet-to-find oil resources lie within non-OPEC countries. When it comes to discovered oil, Saudi Arabia has 90bn more barrels than the US, making their count up to 246 bbo.
Per Magnus Nysveen, head of analysis at Rystad Energy, said, “Compilations of government reported oil reserves are a mix of apples and oranges and the standards differ largely between OECD and OPEC countries.”
The world holds 388 bbo of commercially proved reserves, corresponding to about 13 years of oil production. Approximately 54 per cent of the commercially proved reserves are with OPEC countries. Data from Rystad Energy reveals that the addition of new commercially proved reserves in 2017 outpaced global levels of production and consumption for the year, thus indicating a sustainable inventory of oil for the short-term.
