OIL AND GAS IN VIRGINIA

Oil and natural gas are produced in the Appalachian Plateaus and Valley and Ridge Provinces of Virginia, and there is potential for production from the Mesozoic basins and the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf offshore of Virginia. Most of the conventional oil and gas produced in Virginia is from the Devonian Shale-Middle and Upper Paleozoic Total Petroleum System, and most of the unconventional gas production is from the Carboniferous Coal-bed Gas Total Petroleum System.

The Taylorsville Mesozoic basin, which is almost entirely buried beneath the Atlantic Coastal Plain in northeastern Virginia, is a potential exploration target of industry. In addition, the Valley coalfields near Blacksburg contain some potential for the development of coalbed methane. The relatively unexplored Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (AOCS) region from Delaware to North Carolina has been assessed by the U.S. Minerals Management Service as containing about 1.50 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil resources, and 15.13 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of undiscovered technically recoverable gas resources. Part of these resources may occur in the AOCS area of Virginia.

Virginia currently (2005) is producing almost 89 billion cubic feet of gas annually from about 4,130 wells. Of this number, 2,753 wells produced about 69.1 billion cubic feet of coalbed methane in 2005. During the past decade, oil production from as many as 109 wells has ranged from less than 10 thousand to a little more than 26 thousand barrels annually. Current oil production (2005 data) is about 26,417 barrels of oil from 68 wells.