In a release sent to Rigzone recently, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) outlined that, in an assessment of undiscovered gas and oil in the Bossier Formation along the Gulf Coast, it has calculated that there are technically recoverable resources of 343.5 trillion cubic feet of gas and three million barrels of oil in the region.
The gas resources are enough to supply the United States for more than 10 years at the current rate of consumption, according to the release, which highlighted that, since production began, the Bossier Formation has produced 3.8 trillion cubic feet of gas, “equal to nearly six weeks of U.S. consumption at the record-high 2025 level”.
“The USGS defined an Upper Jurassic Cretaceous-Tertiary Composite Total Petroleum System (TPS) encompassing oil and gas throughout the Gulf Coast region,” the USGS stated in its report titled Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources in the Bossier Formation Within the Onshore United States and State Waters of the Gulf Coast Region.
“Gas in shales of the Bossier Formation may be mainly self- sourced but may also be augmented by gas from the underlying Smackover and Haynesville Formations,” the report added, noting that the Bossier Formation “is widespread in the subsurface of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida”.
In its release, the USGS noted that, since its last assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Bossier, exploration drilling by the industry “has revealed deep, highly over-pressured shale formations”, a development the USGS outlined warranted a new assessment.
“New plays, such as the Bossier Western Shale Gas Assessment Unit, sometimes referred to by industry as ‘Western Haynesville’, or ‘Waynesville’, show that drilling into deeper, higher-pressured reservoirs can result in more resources than previously thought,” the USGS said in the release.
USGS Director Ned Mamula stated in the release, “the U.S. economy and our way of life depend on energy, and USGS oil and gas assessments point to resources that industry hasn’t discovered yet”.
“In this case, we have assessed there are significant undiscovered resources in the Bossier Formation,” he added.
The USGS noted in its release that the Gulf Coast “has long been one of the most abundant sources of U.S. energy”.
“The organic-rich shales of the Bossier Formation are produced from up to 18,000 feet below the surface, at greater depths than other resources in the Gulf Coast,” it added.
In a release posted on its website back in January, the USGS revealed that, in an assessment of undiscovered gas and oil in the Woodford and Barnett shales in the Permian Basin, it had calculated that there are technically recoverable resources of 28.3 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.6 billion barrels of oil in the region.
“Since production began in the late 1990s, the Woodford and Barnett shales have produced 26 million barrels of oil, equal to one day’s U.S. consumption,” the USGS stated in that release.
“The Permian Basin has long been one of the most abundant sources of U.S. energy. The organic-rich shales of the Woodford and Barnett occur up to 20,000 feet below the surface, at greater depths than other resources in the Permian,” it added.
“Advances in unconventional production – hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling – now make it possible to produce energy resources from previously inaccessible and technically challenging formations, such as the Woodford and Barnett,” it continued.
In its releases, the USGS highlighted that USGS oil and gas assessments began 50 years ago “following an oil embargo against the U.S. that signaled a need to understand the occurrence, distribution and potential volumes of undiscovered resources”.
The embargo led to a mandate for the USGS to use geologic science and data to assess undiscovered oil and gas resources to help meet the nation’s needs, the USGS stated in the releases, adding that this work continues today, “identifying new resources for domestic production as well as international resources that affect market conditions, an important part of the USGS mission to provide actionable insight to U.S. leaders, other Federal agencies, industry and the public”.
In a statement sent to Rigzone in December last year, Mamula said there are “significant” undiscovered resources in the Gulf Coast’s Haynesville Formation.
“The U.S. economy and our way of life depend on energy, and USGS oil and gas assessments point to resources that industry hasn’t discovered yet,” Mamula noted in that statement.
“In this case, we have assessed there are significant undiscovered resources in the Haynesville Formation of the Gulf Coast,” he added.
A fact sheet posted on the USGS website in December stated that, “using a geology-based assessment methodology”, the USGS “estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 152 million barrels of oil and 47.9 trillion cubic feet of gas in reservoirs of the Haynesville Formation within the onshore United States and State waters of the Gulf Coast Basin”.
To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com