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National Assessment of Oil and Gas Fact Sheet

Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the San Juan Basin Province of New Mexico and Colorado, 2002

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 50.6 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas, a mean of 19 million barrels of undiscovered oil, and a mean of 148 million barrels of natural gas liquids in the San Juan Basin Province.
Introduction
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed an assessment of the undiscovered oil and gas potential of the San Juan Basin Province of northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado (fig. 1). The assessment of the San Juan Basin Province is based on the geologic elements of each Total Petroleum System defined in the province, including hydrocarbon source rocks (source-rock maturation, hydrocarbon generation and migration), reservoir rocks (sequence stratigraphy and petrophysical properties), and hydrocarbon traps (trap formation and timing). Using this geologic framework, the USGS defined four Total Petroleum Systems and 14 Assessment Units within these Total Petroleum Systems and quantitatively estimated the undiscovered oil and gas resources within the 14 Assessment Units (table 1).
Resource Summary
The USGS assessed undiscovered conventional oil and gas and continuous (unconventional) gas. The USGS estimated a mean of 50.6 trillion cubic feet of gas (TCFG), a mean of 19 million barrels of oil (MMBO), and a mean of 148 million barrels of total natural gas liquids (MMBNGL) in four Total Petroleum Systems. Nearly all (99.9 percent) of the undiscovered gas resource is continuous (table 1). Of the 50.6 TCFG of undiscovered gas at the mean, about 29.2 TCFG is estimated to be in the Fruitland Total Petroleum System; 80 percent of this 29.2 TCFG (23.5 TCFG) is Fruitland TPS coal-bed gas. The Lewis Total Petroleum System is estimated to contain a mean of 10.2 TCFG, and the Mancos-Menefee Total Petroleum System is estimated to contain a mean of 11 TCFG, of which about 6 percent (0.67 TCFG) is coal-bed gas (table 1). The Mancos-Menefee Total Petroleum System contains a mean of about 16.8 MMB of undiscovered conventional oil, representing about 88 percent of the undiscovered oil (19.1 MMBO) in the province. The remainder of the undiscovered conventional oil is estimated to be in Jurassic Entrada Sandstone reservoirs of the Todilto Total Petroleum System.
For Further Information
Supporting geologic studies of Total Petroleum Systems and Assessment Units, and reports on the methodology used in the San Juan Basin Province assessment are in progress.
Assessment results are available at the USGS Central Energy Team website:
http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/oilgas/noga/

Figure 1.  San Juan Basin Province of northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado

Figure 1. San Juan Basin Province of northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado.


San Juan Basin Province Assessment Team:
Jennie L. Ridgley (Task Leader; ridgley@usgs.gov), Steven M. Condon, Russell F. Dubiel, Ronald R. Charpentier, Troy A. Cook, Robert A. Crovelli, Timothy R. Klett, Richard M. Pollastro, and Christopher J. Schenk.
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