The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has published a new assessment of shale oil and shale gas resources in the world. The report assesses 137 shale formations in 41 countries outside the United States, expanding on the 69 shale formations within 32 countries considered in the prior report. Estimates in the updated report indicate technically recoverable resources of 345 Gb of world shale oil resources (including the US) and 7,299 tcf (206,650 bcm) of world shale gas resources. The new global shale gas resource estimate is 10% higher than the estimate in the 2011 report.
Shale gas resource estimates for some formations were revised lower in the current report, including those for Norway's Alum Shale, Poland's Lubin Basin, Mexico's Eagle Ford Shale in the Burgos Basin, South Africa's Karoo Basin, and China's Qiongzhusi Shale in the Sichuan Basin and the Lower Cambrian shales in the Tarim Basin. In China, better information regarding the total organic content and geologic complexity resulted in a reduction of the shale gas resource in the Qiongzhusi formation in the Sichuan Basin and Lower Cambrian shales in the Tarim Basin. The Qiongzhusi Shale gas resource estimate was divided by two.