4.0 OCS DEVELOPMENT AND POTENTIAL 



4.1 POTENTIAL 



Potential (undiscovered) recoverable offshore crude oil resources for 

 the Mid and South Atlantic regions have been estimated by the USGS as 

 2 to 4 billion barrels of oil (7, p. 29). The lower limit of this range rep- 

 resents the 95% probability level of discovery while the upper limit rep- 

 resents the 5% probability level. Potential natural gas reserves were es- 

 timated by the same agency as 5 to 14 trillion cubic feet of gas within the 

 95% and 5% probability levels with a statistical mean of 10 trillion cubic 

 feet (l,p.31). 



These estimates apply to continental shelf margins of the states from 



New York to the Florida east coast. The continental shelf is defined 

 in this instance as waters up to 630 feet in depth since it was felt by 

 USGS that technology and economics allowed for ready exploration of 

 offshore areas up to these depths (7, p. 15). 



USGS estimates of 1975 are lower than earlier estimates of oil and gas 

 resources of 10 to 20 billion barrels and 55 to 110 billion cubic feet, re- 

 spectively, made in 1974. For the South Atlantic OCS region, the Office of 

 Technology Assessment has estimated recoverable reserves as to 1.3 billion 

 barrels of oil and to 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas (9). 



Other estimates of potential resource yields add to the divergence of 

 opinions. The American Petroleum Institute has estimated an upper limit of 



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