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U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION U.S Oil and Gas Reserves Up in 1999 U.S. proved reserves of crude oil grew by 3.5 percent in 1999 after an unusually large 6.7 percent decline in 1998. Over 137 percent of 1999 oil production was replaced by proved reserve additions according to the Advance Summary: U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Liquids Reserves, 1999 Annual Report released today by the Energy Information Administration (See figures). The improved economics afforded by resurgent crude prices resulted in the largest positive net revisions to proved reserves in over a decade. This was not a result of increased drilling, more successful exploratory drilling, or dramatically improved technology. The 1999 rebound in crude oil reserves was fundamentally driven by price increases just as the declines of 1998 had been driven by oil prices which were too low to develop and produce much of the U.S. resource base. In January 1999, the average wellhead price of crude oil produced in the U.S. began increasing from the inflation-adjusted 53-year low of $ 8.03 in December 1998, reaching $22.55 per barrel in December 1999. Reserve additions are the sum of total discoveries and the net of revisions and adjustments. For crude oil, the net of revisions and adjustments was the highest in over a decade and replaced 100 percent of 1999 oil production. With this most recent re-estimate of reserves, Texas reclaimed its position as the State with the largest crude oil reserves because it had the largest increase in proved oil reserves in 1999. Total discoveries of crude oil were 725 million barrels in 1999, near the prior 10-year average. The Gulf of Mexico Federal Offshore accounted for over 50 percent of them. Total discoveries, which equaled 37 percent of 1999 oil production, are those reserves attributable to field extensions, new field discoveries, and new reservoir discoveries in old fields. They result from the drilling of exploratory wells. Within total discoveries, the new field discoveries were 321 million barrels, almost all in the Gulf of Mexico Federal Offshore and Alaska. U.S. dry natural gas reserves increased 2 percent in 1999, reversing the 2 percent decline of 1998. Natural gas reserve additions in 1999 replaced 118 percent of gas production. U.S. natural gas proved reserves have now increased in 5 of the past 6 years. Reserve additions of natural gas were higher in 1999 because the net of revisions and adjustments to reserves (11,486 billion cubic feet) was more than twice as high as in 1998 and 70 percent higher than the prior 10-year average. In 1999, natural gas prices were only up 7 percent to $2.08 per thousand cubic feet. The gas revisions related to oil reserve revisions had larger percentage gains than did the revisions for gas reserves not associated with crude oil in the reservoir. Total U.S. gas discoveries declined in 1999 to 10,807 billion cubic feet. The two major U.S. gas supply areas are Texas, which had large gas reserve increases, and the Gulf of Mexico Federal Offshore, where proved reserves of natural gas declined in 1998 and 1999. Coalbed methane reserves and production, one of the nonconventional gas sources, continued to grow faster in 1999 than did the reserves and production of conventional natural gas. States with substantial coalbed methane reserves include Alabama, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming. Advance Summary: U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Liquids Reserves, 1999 Annual Report is available on the EIA Internet site at: http://www.eia.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/data_publications/advanced_summary_1999/adsum1999.pdf
EIA Program Contact: John Wood, 214/720-6150 EIA-2000-14 Contact:
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