Geologic studies of deep natural gas resources
In 1995, the USGS estimated a mean resource of 114 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered technically recoverable natural gas in plays deeper than 15,000 feet/4,572 meters in onshore regions of the United States. This volume summarizes major conclusions of ongoing work. Chapters A and B address the areal extent of drilling and distribution of deep basins in the U.S. Chapter C summarizes distribution of deep sedimentary basins and potential for deep gas in the former Soviet Union. Chapters D and E are geochemical papers addressing source-rock issues and deep gas generation. Chapter F develops a probabilistic method for subdividing gas resources into depth slices, and chapter G analyzes the relative uncertainty of estimates of deep gas in plays in the Gulf Coast Region. Chapter H evaluates the mechanism of hydrogenation of deep, high-rank spent kerogen by water, with subsequent generation of methane-rich HC gas.