The U.S. Geological Survey announced Thursday that it discovered one the largest new sources of oil and natural gas under Texas and New Mexico.
“Christmas came a few weeks early this year,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said as he unveiled the new find. “American strength flows from American energy, and as it turns out, we have a lot of American energy.”
Zinke said the new assessment makes him even more bullish that “American energy dominance is within our grasp as a nation.”
The new shale oil and gas formation known as Wolfcamp, which is adjacent to the oil-rich Permian region in Texas, contains an estimated mean of 46.3 billion barrels of oil, 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 20 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
“The results of this most recent assessment and that of the Wolfcamp Formation in the Midland Basin in 2016 are our largest continuous oil and gas assessments ever released,” said Dr. Jim Reilly, director of the U.S. Geological Survey. “Knowing where these resources are located and how much exists is crucial to ensuring both our energy independence and energy dominance.”
The oil and natural gas estimates are based on what can be produced using the technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that has made the U.S. the largest energy producer in the world in under a decade.
