American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017 - 128

decreased in each of the top five states
for gas reserves. Texas, which has the
most gas reserves, experienced the largest
net decrease at -20.6 Tcf. Pennsylvania
and Oklahoma (second and third largest,
respectively), also had large net downward
revisions, but the declines were offset
partially by developments in the Marcellus
and Woodford shale plays, EIA says.
Crude And Lease Condensate
U.S. crude oil and lease condensate
proved reserves decreased for the first
time in seven years in 2015, and for the
seventh time in the past 20 years, EIA
reports. Declines in reserves also were
observed in 1995, 1996, 1998, 2003,
2004, 2006, and 2008.
As shown in Table 1, U.S. crude oil
and lease condensate proved reserves decreased by 11.8 percent (4.7 billion barrels),
mostly attributable to negative net revisions
to the proved reserves of existing fields.
Although Texas had the most total
discoveries in 2015 (almost 1.4 billion
barrels), EIA says this volume was canceled by more than 1.7 billion barrels of
net downward revisions. After the net of
acquisitions, sales and adjustments were
added, and the state's annual production
(more than 1.2 billion barrels) was subtracted, EIA says Texas' proved reserves
declined by 7 percent.
North Dakota had the second-largest
net decrease in proved reserves, EIA continues. Total discoveries in 2015 added
600 million barrels of proved reserves,
but net downward revisions reduced the
state total by 1.0 billion barrels while the
state produced 400 million. At year-end
2015, North Dakota crude oil and lease
condensate proved reserves decreased 14
percent (838 million barrels).
One producing area that added proved
reserves in 2015 was the Permian Basin,
EIA reveals. Although the state total declined in Texas, EIA says Railroad Commission District 8 added a net 681 million
barrels of proved reserves in 2015, mostly

from extensions to existing fields. Across
the border in eastern New Mexico, the
agency adds, development of the Wolfcamp
Shale and other stacked formations such
as the Bone Spring Carbonate, Strawn
Sandstone, and the Avalon Shale, added
31 million barrels of proved reserves.
As of Dec. 31, 2015, EIA says tight
plays accounted for 33 percent of all
U.S. crude oil and lease condensate proved
reserves. Most of these (95 percent) came
from the Bakken/Three Forks, Eagle Ford,
Bone Spring, Wolfcamp, Niobrara, Marcellus and Barnett tight oil plays. EIA
says the Bakken/Three Forks play in the
Williston Basin remained the largest oilproducing tight play in the United States
in 2015.
Total discoveries-new fields, identifying
new reservoirs in previously-discovered
fields, and extensions-added 3.2 billion
barrels to U.S. proved reserves in 2015,
EIA reports. Geographically, the agency
delineates, the largest total discoveries
came in Texas, North Dakota and Oklahoma at 1.4 billion, 600 million and 400
million barrels, respectively. The federal
Gulf of Mexico reported total discoveries
of 108 million barrels, 20 million of which
came from new field discoveries.
Net downward revisions decreased U.S.
crude oil and lease condensate proved reserves by 5.6 billion barrels in 2015, EIA
says. Geographically, the largest net downward revisions were in Texas, North Dakota
and Alaska at 1.7 billion, 995 million, and
691 million barrels, respectively.
The net change to U.S. crude oil and
lease condensate proved reserves associated with buying and selling properties
was a drop of 30 million barrels, EIA reports. Other adjustments increased proved
oil reserves by 1.1 billion barrels.
EIA says the United States produced
an estimated 3.4 billion barrels of crude
oil and lease condensate in 2015, an increase of 7 percent from 2014. This level
represents the country's seventh consecutive annual production increase. Pro-

TABLE 1
U.S. Proved Reserves and Changes, 2014-15
Crude Oil and Lease
Condensate

Total Natural Gas

Billion Barrels

Trillion Cubic Feet

39.9

388.8

Total discoveries

3.2

34.7

Net revisions

-5.6

-80.8

Net adjustments, sales, acquisitions

1.1

10.8

Estimated Production

-3.4

-29.3

U.S. proved reserves at Dec. 31, 2014

Net additions to U.S. proved reserves

-4.7

-64.5

U.S. proved reserves at Dec. 31, 2015

35.2

324.3

-11.8%

-16.6%

Percent change in U.S. proved reserves

128 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

duction from the lower-48 states was 8
percent above the 2014 level, while EIA
says Alaska experienced a 4 percent production decline.
Natural Gas
EIA reports U.S. proved natural gas
reserves (including gas plant liquids) decreased by 16.6 percent, falling 64.5 Tcf
in 2015 to 324.3 Tcf (Table 1).
At the state level, Texas and West Virginia reported the largest net decreases.
Texas' natural gas proved reserves declined
by 20.6 Tcf, and West Virginia's proved
reserves declined by 9.3 Tcf.
In contrast to these, EIA says, Ohio
added more than 5.0 Tcf of natural gas
proved reserves in 2015, resulting from
development of the Utica/Pt. Pleasant
play in eastern Ohio. Ohio surpassed
Arkansas and the federal Gulf of Mexico
to become the state with the ninth-largest
volume of proved natural gas reserves,
EIA observes.
Total U.S. natural gas discoveries in
2015 were 34.7 Tcf, EIA continues, of
which 95 percent were extensions to existing fields.
Pennsylvania and Texas reported the
most discoveries, at 10.2 Tcf and 6.8
Tcf, respectively. However, EIA adds,
both Pennsylvania and Texas reported
overall net declines in proved natural gas
reserves because their discoveries were
more than offset by negative net revisions.
Ohio had the third-largest volume of total
discoveries at 5.0 Tcf.
EIA says total discoveries in Pennsylvania primarily were from extensions in
the Marcellus Shale. Discoveries in Texas
were mostly from extensions to fields in
the Permian Basin, Eagle Ford Shale, and
the Barnett Shale, the agency details.
EIA reports net revisions decreased
U.S. total natural gas proved reserves by
80.0 Tcf in 2015, while the net change to
natural gas proved reserves from the purchase and sale of properties added 1.4
Tcf. Adjustments to U.S. total natural
gas proved reserves totaled 9.4 Tcf.
EIA remarks that its estimate of U.S.
gas production in its 2015 reserves report
is 29.3 Tcf, an increase of 4.0 percent
over 2014. This compares with EIA's official published estimate of 28.8 Tcf of
marketed gas production in 2015, which
was an increase of 4.5 percent from 2014.
Both of these estimates are record highs,
and 2015 was the 10th consecutive year
that U.S. gas production increased, the
agency says.
On a geographic basis, EIA says Pennsylvania had the largest increase in natural
gas production, gaining 600 billion cubic
feet (13 percent). Ohio had the secondlargest increase at 500 Bcf, which EIA

American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017

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