Posted by
Gray Ghost on Friday, September 26, 2008 9:14:09 PM
In late 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessed the undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Black Warrior Basin in northeastern Mississippi and northwestern Alabama. This assessment is based on the geologic elements of each total petroleum system defined in the province, including hydrocarbon source rocks; reservoir rocks; and hydrocarbon traps.
For the Black Warrior Basin, the USGS estimated means of 8,511 billion cubic feet of gas, 5.9 million barrels of oil, and 7.6 million barrels of total natural gas liquids. This is good news for the states of Mississippi and Alabama. The Black Warrior Basin was one of the earliest oil and natural gas fields developed in the US. And it has been in continuous production for over a hundred years. Production in this field has been falling off for years.
Please see the following map which indicates the area of the basin:
Now I know that the Black Warrior Basin, when compared to the Bakken Field and the Marcellus Ridge, amounts to no more than "hors d'oeuvres". But my point is: "Did you know anything about this?" I live in Mississippi and keep up with such things, being a professional engineer. But up until last week, I didn't have a clue about this.
Hypothesis: Is there a conspiracy in the US to keep the knowledge concerning the size of our oil and natural gas resources away from the general public? It would have on-going for about 20 years now.
The USGS assessment, mentioned above, can now be found at:
pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-038-03/FS-038-03-508.pdf