The US Geological Survey (USGS) says billions of barrels of oil, along with a vast source of gas, have been found in a field of shale rock in West Texas. The discovery “goes to show that, even in areas that have produced billions of barrels of oil, there is still the potential to find billions more,” said Walter Guidroz, Program Director of the USGS Energy Resources Program.
His team has uncovered an estimated 20 billion barrels of oil, 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 1.6 billion barrels of natural gas liquids at the Wolfcamp Shale geologic formation in the Midland area of West Texas. The find is the largest source of shale oil, three times larger than a shale discovery in 2013 in North and South Dakota and Montana, officials said.