# Interesting Reuters article on longevity of shales in Texas/New Mexico
**URL:** https://www.mineralrightsforum.com/t/interesting-reuters-article-on-longevity-of-shales-in-texas-new-mexico/38067
**Category:** Reeves County, TX
**Created:** [December 7, 2018, 2:22am UTC](https://www.mineralrightsforum.com/t/interesting-reuters-article-on-longevity-of-shales-in-texas-new-mexico/38067 "2018-12-07T02:22:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rick5](https://www.mineralrightsforum.com/u/Rick5)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2018, 2:22am UTC](https://www.mineralrightsforum.com/t/interesting-reuters-article-on-longevity-of-shales-in-texas-new-mexico/38067/1 "2018-12-07T02:22:23Z")
[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-shale-texas/texas-and-new-mexico-shale-basins-hold-49-years-worth-of-oil-usgs-idUSKBN1O52IV](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-shale-texas/texas-and-new-mexico-shale-basins-hold-49-years-worth-of-oil-usgs-idUSKBN1O52IV)
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### Author:  [@Rick5](https://www.mineralrightsforum.com/u/Rick5)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2018, 1:22pm UTC](https://www.mineralrightsforum.com/t/interesting-reuters-article-on-longevity-of-shales-in-texas-new-mexico/38067/2 "2018-12-07T13:22:51Z")
Another story as well…
> **[Largest continuous oil and gas resource potential ever](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181206135643.htm)**
>
> USGS announces an assessment of continuous oil and gas in Texas and New Mexico's Delaware Basin, the largest USGS has ever conducted, with an estimate of 46.3 billion barrels of oil and 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
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### Author:  [@richardr](https://www.mineralrightsforum.com/u/richardr)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://www.mineralrightsforum.com/t/interesting-reuters-article-on-longevity-of-shales-in-texas-new-mexico/38067/3 "2019-07-11T16:20:29Z")
Part of what makes the basin area so attractive is: pipelines in place, power grid in place, access roads in place (albeit crowded), drillable every day of the year, no problems with excessive permitting, no problems with unfriendly local government, no problems with rogue groups roaming around with rocket launchers, and the place is so flat with no vegetation it only takes a dozer to make a new drill site, ROW, access road, tank battery, storage site, or man camp. Oh, lest the obvious be omitted - lots of caliche around for base.
Regarding the geology - I cannot imagine drilling all the available sites in Delaware Basin in 50 years what with all the stacked formations not to mention if the Alpine High pans out. People were drilling here 100 years ago and, if the world is still using oil and if water can be found, will be drilling here 100 years to come. In my humble opinion, as long as there are snakes, hogs, and coyotes out there then there will be basin activity because the in-place infrastructure is as much of an attraction as is the geology.
Downside - too bad so much gas is being wasted. When I was a kid it was like daylight with all the flares and it still is 50 years later; and it would be nice if operators would make an attempt to minimize the light pollution [I understand there is so much activity that the classic dark skies at McDonald Observatory are not so dark anymore].
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### Author:  [@Kenny\_DuBose](https://www.mineralrightsforum.com/u/Kenny_DuBose)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2023, 12:19pm UTC](https://www.mineralrightsforum.com/t/interesting-reuters-article-on-longevity-of-shales-in-texas-new-mexico/38067/7 "2023-03-27T12:19:49Z")