Only minimal amounts of untapped oil and gas resources remain in the historic Los Angeles fossil fuel production basin, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
New estimates released by USGS on Wednesday indicate that just 61 million barrels of oil are technically recoverable in this region — equivalent to just 0.68 percent of the mammoth quantities already extracted.
As a basis of comparison, since exploration began in the area in the 1880s, 9 billion barrels of oil have been produced or discovered in the basin. That total is about the same as the quantity of oil that the U.S. currently uses in 14 months, according to the agency.
“Almost 150 years since exploration began, the Los Angeles Basin has little remaining undiscovered oil,” Sarah Ryker, acting director of the USGS, said in a statement.
Regarding natural gas availability, the USGS assessments indicated that about 240 billion cubic feet of this resource remain available. Historic data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that about 504 billion cubic feet of onshore dry natural gas have been produced from the basin since the late 1970s.
The Los Angeles Basin includes the coastal plain and waters of Los Angeles: extending north to the Santa Monica Mountains, east to the Angeles National Forest and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and east and south into much of Orange County.
The USGS assessments first began about 50 years ago, after an oil embargo against the U.S., which led the government to require the agency to assess the country’s untapped resources with geologic data.
These evaluations, Ryker explained, usually “focus on undiscovered resources – areas where science tells us there may be a resource that industry hasn’t discovered yet.”
The USGS is continuing to identify new such resources both in the domestic arena and in global hotspots that could affect market conditions. Having such information available, the agency added, is critical to providing “actionable insight to U.S. leaders, other federal agencies, industry and the public.”
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