Table 8 

 PUBLISHED ESTIMATES OF OFFSHORE PETROLEUM RESOURCES 



ULTIMATE OFFSHORE OIL AND N.G.L. RESERVES 

 (billions of barrels) 



ULTIMATE OFFSHORE NATURAL GAS RESERVES 

 (trillions of cubic feet) 



RECENT ESTIMATES OF TOTAL RESOURCES 



U.S. Total 



World Total 



Oil (xlO^bbls.) Gas(x10'^ ft.^) Oil (xlO' bbls.) Gas(x10'^ ft.^) 



Hubbert, 1962, 1965 

 Hendricks, 1965 

 Weeks, 1965 (Offshore 



7,500 



(15,000) 



(1,740) 



Source: T. W. Nelson anci C. A. Burk, "Petroleum Resources of the Continental Margins of the United States,' 

 Exploiting the Ocean (Washington, D.C.: Marine Technology Society, 1966). 



their own based on geological extrapolations. They 

 estimated that three bilHon barrels of petroleum 

 and 27 trillion cubic feet of natural gas probably 

 await driUing in reservoirs already known, and that 

 possibly 8 to 26 billion barrels and 33 to 113 

 trillion cubic feet remain to be discovered. 



The ultimate petroleum production from the 

 U.S. continental shelves would thus be estimated 

 to range from about 15 to 35 billion barrels of 

 petroleum and from 90 to 170 trillion cubic feet 

 of natural gas. For comparison, the total U.S. 

 production for 1966 was three and one-half biUion 



VIH99 



