Shale oil 'adds 11% to world reserves'
Estimated
global reserves of shale oil could increase total world crude resources by 11%,
according to a US government report.
The Energy
Information Administration estimated there were some 345 billion barrels of
"technically recoverable" shale oil reserves in 41 countries.
And some 7,299
trillion cubic feet of shale gas reserves could boost natural gas resources by
47%, the EIA said.
But technically
recoverable reserves are not a guaranteed supply.
They are an
estimate of how much oil or gas could be extracted using the latest technology
and they do not take into account economic viability.
"The
reserves are one thing, but the ability to scale up the production for those
reserves is another thing, which is not as straightforward in many parts of the
world as it has proved to be in the US," said Jan Stuart, head of energy
research at Credit Suisse in New York.
For instance,
in Poland, which is believed to have much shale potential, several companies
have given up shale drilling after early attempts indicated extraction would be
difficult.
Changing markets
Shale oil and
gas reserves are expected to have a huge impact on the world's energy markets.
A recent report by consultants PwC said that shale oil "has the
potential to reshape the global economy, increasing energy security,
independence and affordability in the long term".
Last month the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that a steeper-than-expected rise
in US shale oil reserves would mean the US would change from the world's
leading importer of oil to a net exporter over the next five years.
The Energy
Information Administration (EIA) is the independent statistics arm of the US
Department of Energy.
Its report
marks the first time it has looked at global shale reserves. A previous report
in 2011 only looked at shale oil resources in the US.
According to
its latest assessment, Russia has the most shale oil reserves with 75 billion
barrels, ahead of the US and China.
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