Oil
[Due to the increasing size of the archives, each topic page now contains only the prior 365 days of content. Access to older stories is now solely through the Monthly Archive pages or the site search function.]
IEA Calls for “Global Energy Revolution” Despite Economic Crisis
November 12, 2008
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| World primary energy demand in WEO 2008 Reference Scenario. Click to enlarge. |
In his release of the IEA’s World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2008—the latest edition of the International Energy Agency’s annual publication—IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said that the report highlights that current trends in energy supply and consumption are “patently unsustainable, environmentally, economically and socially. They can and must be altered.”
In the WEO-2008 Reference Scenario, which assumes no new government policies, world primary energy demand grows by 1.6% per year on average between 2006 and 2030—an increase of 45%. This is slower than projected last year, mainly due to the impact of the economic slowdown, prospects for higher energy prices and some new policy initiatives.
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UOP, Albemarle and Petrobras to Cooperate on Catalytic Crude Upgrading for Heavy Oils
October 03, 2008
UOP LLC, Albemarle and Petrobras have signed a technology cooperation agreement to demonstrate and further the commercialization of UOP’s Catalytic Crude Upgrading (CCU) process technology. UOP developed the CCU process in 2005 as a cost-effective option to upgrade heavy crude oils and bitumen-derived crude.
Under the agreement, UOP will provide the technology, equipment and system design. Albemarle will provide an improved Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) catalyst to be used in the process. Petrobras, which has already run the process in its pilot plant, will offer knowledge and experience with FCC catalyst as well as heavy crude processing.
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Assessing the Impact of Global Peak Oil on the Climate
September 10, 2008
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| Atmospheric carbon dioxide changes over time for the study’s five fossil fuel scenarios: business-as-usual (a), coal phase-out (b) and oil use and supply (c-e). Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA/Kharecha and Hansen |
A new paper by Pushker Kharecha and James Hansen at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University Earth Institute shows that if proven conventional oil and gas reserves do not greatly exceed estimates of the Energy Information Administration—i.e., if conventional production peaks during the next few decades—it will be feasible to keep atmospheric CO2 from exceeding about 450 ppm by 2100, provided that emissions from coal, unconventional fossil fuels, and land use are constrained. Their paper was published 5 August in the American Geophysical Union’s journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles.
Although a limit of 450 ppm CO2 is one of the more ambitious emissions targets proposed by governments and corporations, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that even at that limit, there is a 20% likelihood that global temperatures will increase by 3.5º C or more. In April, Hansen called for a global target of 350 ppm. (Earlier post.)
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Modified Seawater as EOR Fluid Could Boost Oil Recovery From Limestone Reservoirs Up to 60%
September 03, 2008
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| Schematic model of the suggested mechanism for altering wettability using seawater. (A) Proposed mechanism when Ca2+ and SO42- are active. (B) Proposed mechanism when Mg2+ and SO42- are also active at higher temperatures. Click to enlarge. Credit: ACS |
Researchers at the University of Stavanger in Norway report that injecting a modified seawater fluid—“smart water”—into limestone oil reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) could help boost oil extraction from those reservoirs by as much as 60%. Their findings are scheduled for the 10 September issue of the ACS journal Energy & Fuels.
In the study, Tor Austad and colleagues note that more than 50% of the world’s oil reserves are trapped in oil reservoirs composed of calcium carbonate, rocks that include chalk and limestone. The average oil recovery from carbonates is generally lower than for sandstone reservoirs. The reason, they note, is that the carbonate rock is neutral to preferentially oil-wet and often highly fractured.
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100% of Gulf of Mexico Oil Production Shut-In After Gustav
September 02, 2008
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| Hurricane Gustav’s path through oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. Click to enlarge. Source: EIA. |
The US Minerals Management Service (MMS) reported that as of mid-day Tuesday, approximately 100% of the oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut-in, based on reports from the operators. Estimated current oil production from the Gulf of Mexico is 1.3 million barrels of oil per day. Approximately 95.4 % of the natural gas production in the Gulf has been shut-in. Estimated current natural gas production from the Gulf of Mexico is 7.4 billion cubic feet of gas per day.
Thirteen refineries are shut down, totaling 2.5 million barrels per day of capacity. Ten refineries in the Gulf Coast region also reduced runs.
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Report: Global Refinery Octane Requirements to Decline
A new Global Refining Octane Outlook report by Hart Energy Consulting concludes that while the global gasoline market octane will gradually increase by half a point through 2020, requirements for global refinery octane will decline between 2007 and 2020, affected by outside component contributions—e.g., merchant ether and ethanol—and the impact of fuel quality requirements.
Global octane markets have been volatile as driven by refining capacity constraints, gasoline sulfur reductions (and related refinery processing octane loss), removal of MTBE from markets, upgrade of ultra low octane markets and final stages of lead removal. Markets have experienced periods of high octane premiums with US premiums peaking at 5 to 7 cents per octane-gallon.
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Argonne and KPM Developing New Efficient Process for Extracting Hydrogen from Hydrogen Sulfide in Unrefined Petroleum, Including Oil Sands
August 26, 2008
Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. (KPM) of Kingston, Ontario are developing a new process to extract and reuse pure hydrogen from the hydrogen sulfide that naturally contaminates unrefined oil, including oil sands. The hydrogen can then be used to upgrade and clean crude oil and petroleum products and aid in a number of refining processes.
The process uses a molten copper reactor invented by Argonne and KPM researchers. Hydrogen sulfide gas is first separated from the crude oil stock in the reactor, using technology already in place. This gas is then bubbled though molten copper, which releases pure hydrogen, which is captured. As the sulfur reacts with the copper, the copper is gradually turned into copper sulfide.
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Shell Perdido Spar Arrives in GOM; Deepest Oil Development in the World
August 18, 2008
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| The Perdido spar will bring production in from three fields—Great White, Silvertip and Tobago—with a production design of 130,000 boe/day. Click to enlarge. |
The Shell-operated Perdido Regional Development Spar has arrived in the ultra-deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and is currently being secured to the seafloor in 7,816 ft (2,382 m) of water, a process that will take about one month. Perdido will be the deepest oil development in the world, the deepest drilling and production platform in the world and have the deepest subsea well in the world to date. Other partners in the joint venture are BP and Chevron.
Designed to deliver 100,000 barrels of oil and 200 million scf of gas (a total 130,000 barrels of oil equivalent, boe) per day, the Perdido Spar will bring in production from three fields: Great White, Silvertip and Tobago.
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USGS Estimates the Arctic Holds About 22% of Global Undiscovered, Technically Recoverable Oil, Gas and NGLs
July 24, 2008
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| Assessment units (AUs) in the Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal (CARA) color-coded by assessed probability of the presence of at least one undiscovered oil and/or gas field with recoverable resources greater than 50 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBOE). Probabilities for AUs are based on the entire area of the AU, including any parts south of the Arctic Circle. Click to enlarge. |
The area north of the Arctic Circle has an estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, 1,670 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas, and 44 billion barrels of technically recoverable natural gas liquids (NGLs) in 25 geologically defined areas thought to have potential for petroleum, according to an assessment by the US Geological Survey (USGS). The assessment from the USGS Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal (earlier post) is the first publicly available petroleum resource estimate of the entire area north of the Arctic Circle.
These resources account for about 22% of the undiscovered, technically recoverable resources in the world. The Arctic accounts for about 13% of the undiscovered oil, 30% of the undiscovered natural gas, and 20% of the undiscovered natural gas liquids in the world. About 84% of the estimated resources are expected to occur offshore.
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GE and STW Resources Collaborate to Recover Up to 70% of Hydraulic Fracturing Wastewater
July 17, 2008
GE Water & Process Technologies and STW Resources, Inc., (STW), a new company formed to use GE technology in water reclamation, formed a collaborative that will use a new, cost-effective process and patented GE thermal evaporation technologies to help oil and gas customers recover up to 70% of their hydraulic fracturing wastewater. Hydraulic fracturing is common technique used to increase the production rate of oil and gas wells, and creates billions of gallons of wastewater annually.
A conventional hydraulic fracture system combines freshwater with proppant (sand) and a polymer system. The polymer portion provides viscosity or thixotropic characteristics to carry the proppant into the reservoir. The fluid is pumped into the oil or gas bearing zone at very high pressure and cracks or fractures the structure, enabling the proppant to penetrate far back into the zone.
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TransCanada Announces $7B Expansion to Keystone Pipeline Project; Capacity Could Reach 1.5M Barrels per Day
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| The existing Keystone pipeline project and the Keystone XL expansion project. Click to enlarge. |
TransCanada Corporation, on behalf of the Keystone Pipeline partnerships (Keystone) between TransCanada and ConocoPhillips, plans to expand the still-to-be-completed Keystone crude oil pipeline system project (earlier post) to provide additional capacity of 500,000 barrels per day from Western Canada directly to the US Gulf Coast by 2012.
The expansion (“Keystone XL Pipeline Project”) is expected to cost approximately US$7.0 billion. When completed, the expansion will increase the commercial design of the Keystone Pipeline system from 590,000 barrels per day to approximately 1.1 million barrels per day and result in a total capital investment of approximately US$12.2 billion.
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IEA: Despite Some Weakening Demand, Oil Market Will Remain Tight Over the Medium Term
July 01, 2008
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| Distillates (jet fuel, kerosene, diesel and other gasoil) will remain the main growth drivers of world oil demand, followed by LPG and naphtha (mostly used as petrochemical feedstocks) and gasoline. Click to enlarge. |
Despite a weakening in demand in the OECD due to weaker economic growth projections and a doubling of oil prices over the past year, ongoing supply constraints, refinery limitations and continued demand growth in key emerging markets will contribute to a tight market over the medium term (to 2013), according to the Medium-Term Oil Market Report (MTOMR 2008) just published by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The current high prices in the market are primarily due to demand-supply fundamentals, not to speculation, according to the report.
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Global Energy Consumption Rises as Supplies Lag; Coal Still the Fastest Growing Fuel in the World
June 18, 2008
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| Global consumption of energy, in million tonnes of oil equivalent. Click to enlarge. |
According to the just-published BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2008, the ongoing strength of world economic growth last year, despite financial market turmoil which began in August, continued to support global energy consumption. Although growth in primary energy consumption slowed in 2007 compared to 2006, at 2.4% it was still above the 10-year average for the fifth consecutive year.
Coal remained the fastest-growing fuel, but oil consumption grew slowly. Oil is still the world’s leading fuel, but has lost global market share for six consecutive years, while coal has gained market share for six years.
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Dust-Up Between BP and Russian Investors Threatens TNK-BP Joint Venture
by Jack Rosebro
A quartet of Russian oligarchs—Mikhail Fridman and German Khan of the Alfa Group, Viktor Vekselberg of the Renova Group, and Len Blavatnik of Access Industries—are pressuring BP to replace Robert Dudley, the BP-nominated CEO of TNK-BP, a joint British-Russian oil venture, and shake up its board of directors.
The TNK-BP joint venture is a significant contributor to BP’s total production. In the first quarter of 2008, BP’s share of output from TNK-BP was 818,000 barrels of oil per day and 512 mmcf/d of natural gas per day, for a combined 906,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day—33.4% of BP’s oil production and 23% of its total liquids, oil and natural gas production for the quarter.
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EIA: ANWR Oil Production Would Peak at 780K Barrels per Day
May 23, 2008
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| ANWR production would peak in 2028 (ten years after the start of production). Click to enlarge. Source: EIA |
The opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR 1002 Area) to oil and natural gas development would result in additional oil production of a peak 780,000 barrels per day in 2027, according to the mean case developed by the Energy Information Administration in a revised assessment of ANWR potential. That would result in trimming $0.75 (in 2006 dollars) off the projected cost of a barrel of oil, according to the EIA.
In an assessment of ANWR four years ago, the EIA concluded that ANWR production would peak, in the mean case scenario, in 2024 at 870,000 barrels of oil per day. (Earlier post.) EIA revised its earlier assessment in response to a request from Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.
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Senators Introduce Bill to Increase Domestic Oil and Natural Gas Production; Coal-Derived Fuel Mandate
May 04, 2008
US Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, introduced the American Energy Production Act of 2008 (S.2958) to increase domestic production of oil and natural gas and to fund the development of oil shale and coal-to-liquids technology. Eighteen other senators co-sponsored. Included in the bill is language for a coal-derived fuels mandate.
The bill would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as well as the Atlantic and Pacific regions of the Outer Continental Shelf for exploration and production; and lift the one-year moratorium on developing oil shale in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.
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University Spin-Off to Begin Field Trial of Methanogenic Degradation of Heavy Oil Next Month
April 29, 2008
Researchers from Canada and the UK expect to begin field trials next month on the ability of anaerobic microbes to process in-situ heavy oil to produce methane—i.e., methanogenic degradation of heavy oil.
Scientists at Newcastle University, England, and the University of Calgary, Canada, have set up a company, Profero Energy Inc, to build on their recent research, which demonstrated how naturally-occurring microbes convert oil to methane over tens of millions of years. The team recently published a paper on their latest work in the journal Nature. (Earlier post.)
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USGS Assesses Bakken Formation to Hold 3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil; 25 Times More Than 1995 Estimate
April 11, 2008
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| Map showing Williston Basin Province boundary (in red), Bakken-Lodgepole Total Petroleum System (TPS) (in blue), and major structural features in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Click to enlarge. |
North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation of the Williston Basin, according to a just-released assessment by the US Geological Survey (USGS). This latest assessment shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency’s 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.
The assessment also identified 1.85 trillion cubic feet of associated/dissolved natural gas, and 148 million barrels of natural gas liquids.
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Researchers Map Layers of Lava Flows Beneath North Atlantic; New Technique to Further Oil Exploration
March 30, 2008
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| Location of seismic profiles across the North Atlantic. Click to enlarge. |
Scientists have mapped the layers of once molten rock that lie beneath the North Atlantic Ocean and which measure more than eight miles thick in some locations. The research, reported in the journal Nature, provides a better understanding of what may have happened during the break-up of continents to form new mid-ocean ridges. The same volcanic activity in the North Atlantic may also have caused the subsequent release of massive volumes of greenhouse gases which led to a spike in global temperatures 55 million years ago.
The scientists, led by Professor Robert White, FRS at the University of Cambridge (UK), also developed a new method of seeing through the thick lava flows beneath the seafloor to the sediments and structures beneath. The technique is now being employed to further oil exploration of the area which was previously restricted by the inability to image through the lava flows.
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Chevron Unveils New Refining Technology That Converts Ultra-Heavy Oil Into Fuel; Up to 100% Conversion
March 07, 2008
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| Chevron’s basic heavy-oil conversion process. The key is the preparation of the highly active catalyst incorporating the use of vacuum gas oil (vacuum resid). Click to enlarge. |
Chevron Corporation plans to build a pre-commercial plant at its refinery in Pascagoula, Miss., to test the technical and economic viability of a new heavy-oil upgrading technology called Vacuum Resid Slurry Hydrocracking (VRSH). VRSH has the potential to significantly increase yields of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from heavy and ultra-heavy crude oils and could be used to increase and upgrade production of heavy oil resources, according to Chevron.
The announcement came shortly after Italy-based oil major Eni signed strategic agreements with PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, that include Eni’s making available a similar heavy-oil processing technology: EST (Eni Slurry Technology). Both announcements indicate the growing reliance of refiners on processing heavy-grade crudes into fuels.
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Study Could Open Pathway to More Effective Production of Low-Sulfur Transportation Fuels from High-Sulfur Stocks
February 25, 2008
Researchers at ConocoPhillips have found that successfully desulfurizing heavy crude oil with current methods depends primarily on the oil’s concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, not on the nature of the oil’s sulfurous molecules. The study is published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
This observation, in contradiction to conventional wisdom in fuel processing, may provide a pathway to produce high-quality, low-sulfur transportation fuels from low-quality, high-sulfur petroleum feedstocks.
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Mexico’s Cantarell Continues Steep Decline in Oil Production in 2007
January 27, 2008
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| Average daily production by year from the combined fields of the Cantarell complex. Click to enlarge. |
Oil production from Mexico’s giant Cantarell offshore complex continued its steep decline in 2007, dropping to a combined average 1.458 million barrels per day (mbpd) of production from all the fields, down 18% from an average 1,776.2 mbpd in 2006, according to statistics from the Energy Ministry available on the Sistema de Información Energética (SIE).
Cantarell accounted for 47.3% of all of PEMEX’s crude oil output in 2007, down from 54.6% in 2006. Mexico’s total crude output dropped 5.3% in 2007 compared to the year before, down to 3.082 million barrels per day from 3.256 mpbd in 2006 according to the SIE statistics.
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Shell to Present New Energy Scenarios to 2050: Scramble and Blueprints
January 25, 2008
As part of its on-going methodology of scenario-assisted planning, this year Shell will present two new global scenarios looking out to 2050: Scramble and Blueprints. Shell last issued a set of global scenarios in 2005, looking forward to 2025.
Shell uses scenarios to help review and assess strategy. The scenarios are not forecasts but rather efforts to understand the possible interplay of different types of change. During the 1990’s, as market liberalization accelerated, the Shell global scenarios explored increasing globalization, the onrush of new technology and market liberalization.
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Discovery of Mechanism of Biodegradation of Crude Oil to Methane Could Lead to Cleaner Oil-Sands Production and Enhanced Energy Recovery from Oilfields
December 14, 2007
An international team of researchers has shown how anaerobic microbes in oil deposits around the world—including in unconventional sources such as the oil sands—naturally break down crude oil into methane in the reservoir.
Their discovery—published in the journal Nature—could lead to more energy-efficient, economic ways to extract difficult-to-recover energy from oilfields or heavy oil and oil-sands deposits.
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New EIA Annual Energy Outlook Reflects Higher Energy Prices, Lower Consumption; GHG Emissions Projected to Grow 25% from 2006-2030
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| AEO2008 projections of energy consumption by sector. Consumption in the transportation sector is projected to grow the most rapidly. Click to enlarge. |
The Annual Energy Outlook 2008 (AEO2008) reference case, released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), includes several significant changes from earlier AEOs reflecting trends in the economy and energy markets that the EIA now expects to persist.
EIA has raised the world oil price path in the AEO2008. In the last few years, global economic growth has been strong, despite high oil prices. While current oil prices are above EIA’s reference case projection of long-run prices, it now appears that, in the mid-term, the cost of liquids will be higher than previously projected.
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Saft Launches First Li-ion Cell Capable of Operating at +125°C
November 27, 2007
Saft has launched the world’s first Li-ion cell capable of operating at temperatures of up to +125°C—an innovation that opens up new possibilities for the design of MWD (Measurement While Drilling) tools. At the same time, Saft has also launched a new D-size primary lithium cell.
The launch of the new VL 25500-125 Li-ion cell and the new LSH 20-150 primary cell is a major development in the design of reliable, cost-effective power sources for electronic equipment operating under the high levels of shock, vibration and pressure and extreme temperatures experienced by MWD tools in the oil and gas exploration industry.
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USGS Estimates Laptev Sea Shelf in Arctic to Hold 3 Billion Barrels of Undiscovered Crude Oil
November 25, 2007
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| Map showing location of the Laptev Sea Shelf Province and assessment units. Click to enlarge. |
The Laptev Sea Shelf province, in the Arctic waters off of the Russian Federation, holds an estimated 3.07 billion barrels of crude oil in undiscovered resources, according to an assessment by the US Geological Survey (USGS) as part of its Circum-Arctic Oil and Gas Resource Appraisal (CARA).
The Laptev region holds a total of 9.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent in undiscovered resources, with some 32.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The USGS estimates the greatest volume of undiscovered crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids to be in the West Laptev Grabens Assessment Unit.
