"Saudi" America My Ass

The list below is the top 13 shale (shaley carbonate) oil companies operating in the Permian Basin and their respective proven developed (PDP) and proven undeveloped (PUD) reserve estimates. This list is provided by Art Berman and Labrynith Consulting Services, Inc., but the data is gleaned directly from 2017 10-K Securities and Exchange filings from the shale oil companies themselves.

6,287,547,000 barrels of proven recoverable and proven undeveloped oil reserves from the top 13 producers in the Permian, for the record, is approximately 1 1/4 years of total crude + condensate consumption in America. Everybody and their dog that can get a drilling rig, and some sand, is now drilling unconventional wells in the Permian Basin so of course there are more PDP and PUD reserves than those listed below, but not a lot more. So at current production rates of 3.3MM BOPD in West Texas there is about 7 1/2 to 8 years of proven reserves left in the Permian and if all we had left was shale oil to rely on in America, that would last us slightly over two years. Scary, uh?

As Calvin points out in his Oily Stuff guest post last week, Saudi Arabia's 1P, proven, recoverable reserves were recently audited by two, respected American firms and found to be 271,000,000,000 barrels. So, comparing the Permian Basin to Saudi Arabia is really stupid.

Most of us know who first coined the phrase, "Saudi" America, and why. Regardless of whether you are big shale CEO, or an analyst, if you are telling the American public there is more shale oil in the Permian Basin than there is oil in Saudi Arabia... I am embarrassed for you. You are NOT doing your country a service by saying that kind of dookey. Its a big 'ol whopper.