For the first time in three decades, the federal government has released a study tallying up the amount of oil and gas under public land in the U.S. It comes in response to a push from the Trump administration to “unleash” domestic energy supplies.
“American Energy Dominance is more important than ever,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a press release announcing the study.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) analysis identifies almost 30 billion barrels of oil and about 400 trillion cubic feet of natural gas under national parks, wilderness areas and other public lands. A lot of it straddles the continental divide in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming.
The study says Wyoming is home to about a billion barrels of oil and 60 trillion feet of gas on these lands.
The survey said there’s enough oil under public lands to meet four years of U.S. demand at current rates of consumption and enough gas to meet 12 years. That’s if 100% of these resources are extracted.
Pete Obermueller, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said it’s important to have this kind of inventory. He added that the industry could be interested in developing more on public lands that are open for leasing, but the technology needs to progress first.
Southwest Wyoming, for instance, is home to a shale layer that is hard to drill.
“We have to have the science, and then we have to not only have the science, we have to have the economics worked out in order to have it make sense,” Obermueller said.
Alec Underwood, program director at the Wyoming Outdoor Council, noted market volatility could also prevent development. Plus, he wants to see the recreation economy and wildlife conservation prioritized in the state alongside energy development.
“It's a lot more nuanced than, say, let's ‘drill, baby, drill’ as has been the administration's priority,” Underwood said, pointing to a regional poll from the National Wildlife Federation, which found lackluster support for some of the Trump administration’s energy proposals.
The information from this USGS report isn’t necessarily new for geologists and industry leaders in places like the Cowboy State, but it is the first time the agency has studied resources under public land nationwide since 1998. Back then, it found far fewer resources, largely because of technology constraints.
“We expect these estimates to be useful for state and national land management, energy futures analysis, and economic development planning,” Sarah Ryker, acting director of the USGS said in the press release.
Credit: U.S. Geological Survey
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise StateCRED Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
