Drillers have wrung oil out of West Texas for a century, but there’s still plenty left in untapped shale rocks.
In its first assessment of the Wolfcamp shale, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the formation holds 20 billion undiscovered, technically recoverable barrels of oil, three times as much as the Bakken Shale in North Dakota. That’s enough gasoline to drive your car nearly two light years.
“Even in areas that have produced billions of barrels of oil, there is still the potential to find billions more,” said Walter Guidroz, program coordinator for the agency’s energy resource program, in a written statement.