US proven oil reserves remain stable, natural gas reserves decline



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Falling crude oil and natural gas prices reversed a two-year trend of record proven reserves in the United States in 2019, with operators downgrading their estimates of total proven reserves, the Energy Information Administration said on Friday. (EIA).

The EIA’s annual report showed that proven crude oil and rental condensate reserves remained essentially the same in 2019 as in 2018, with a very slight increase of 0.1%. Proven reserves of natural gas, on the other hand, fell 1.9%, according to EIA data through the end of 2019.

In that year, crude oil prices were generally lower than oil prices in 2018, with the price of US benchmark crude oil, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), averaging $ 57 per barrel, falling $ 7 per barrel compared to 2018.

“Falling crude oil prices in 2019 prompted many operators to revise their estimates of total proven reserves downward, even as proven reserves from expansions and discoveries increased slightly,” the EIA said.

By comparison, the rise in oil and natural gas prices in 2018 took proven oil and gas reserves in the United States to all-time highs. Proven reserves of oil and natural gas broke the previous high of the previous year, when rising prices and further development of shale resources in 2017 helped push U.S. reserves to what were then volumes. records. In 2018, America’s proven crude oil reserves jumped 12%.

In 2019, US proven oil reserves, at 47.1 billion barrels, remain at the record highs set in 2018, the EIA said in its report. Alaskan producers added 259 million barrels of proven crude oil and rental condensate reserves in 2019, the largest net increase of any state.

In natural gas reserves, proved reserves in 2019 recorded the first annual decline in the United States since 2015, with Texas posting the largest decline with declines in major shale gas areas like Eagle Ford, Barnett and Bossier .

Still, total U.S. gas reserves remain at their second-highest on record, according to the EIA.

By Charles Kennedy for Oil chauffage

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