Federal energy authorities have slashed by 96% the estimated amount of recoverable oil buried in California’s vast Monterey Shale deposits, deflating its potential as a national "black gold mine" of petroleum. Just 600 million barrels of oil can be extracted with existing technology, far below the 13.7 billion barrels once thought recoverable from the jumbled layers of subterranean rock spread across much of Central California, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. ————FOR THE RECORD: Monterey Shale: In the May 21 Section A, an article about federal energy authorities slashing by 96% the estimated amount of recoverable oil in California’s […]

Click here to view original article U.S. officials cut estimate of recoverable Monterey Shale oil by 96%