North America isn’t the only continent that enjoys a shale gas abundance, according to research commissioned by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). As most in the gas industry already knew, EIA’s study found plenty of gas around the globe, but just how much is hard to determine yet, the agency said Tuesday.

Initial assessments of 48 shale basins suggests that shale gas resources offer 5,760 Tcf of technically recoverable gas in 32 foreign countries, compared with 862 Tcf in the United States, EIA said.

EIA hired Advanced Resources International Inc. to assess basins in 32 countries, containing almost 70 shale gas formations. Adding the 5,760 Tcf of technically recoverable overseas shale gas to the U.S. estimate of 862 Tcf yields a total of 6,622 Tcf. For comparison, most current estimates of world technically recoverable natural gas resources include few if any of the resources assessed in the shale study and total about 16,000 Tcf, EIA said.

“Adding identified shale gas resources to current estimates of other gas resources increases total world technically recoverable resources by over 40%, to more than 22,000 Tcf,” said EIA Administrator Richard Newell.

(To read the full story go to shaledaily.com.)

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