Nearly 1.4 trillion boe of reserves exist in conventional, undeveloped oil and natural gas fields around the world, including almost 1.1 trillion boe of technical reserves, those without firm development plans in place, according to Wood Mackenzie.

At current price assumptions, North America has an estimated $132 billion of potential value from “good technical fields,” said Wood Mackenzie’s David Highton, principal analyst of upstream research for the UK consultant.

Total technical reserves in North American are estimated at 107 billion boe, consisting of 97 billion bbl of liquids and 59 Tcf of natural gas, a Wood Mackenzie spokesman told NGI.

“Of these, some 102 billion boe is estimated to be potentially economic, consisting of 92 billion bbl liquids and 57 Tcf gas,” he said. “With an estimated indicative value of $132 billion, this equates to an average of $1.30/boe.”

It’s important to note, he said, that Wood Mackenzie’s research is for conventional petroleum resources only and doesn’t include Canada’s oilsands, nor does it include all of the numbers for the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and a portion of the Lower 48 states because estimates aren’t completed.

Worldwide, about half of the discoveries already on the books are classified as “potentially economic,” according to Wood Mackenzie. “These have an indicative collective value of $760 billion.”

In an estimate published earlier this year of U.S. natural gas reserves only, and without placing a monetary value on them, the Potential Gas Committee and the American Gas Association estimated that the United States had about 2,384 Tcf of technical gas, up from 486 Tcf in 2010 (see Daily GPI,April 10).

The value of North America’s potential conventional reserves ranks third in the world behind the Middle East, which leads at $185 billion, with “massive undeveloped resources” estimated at 367 billion boe, said Highton.

“These include the undeveloped volumes in the super-giant North/South Pars gas field, which extends between Qatar and Iran in the Persian Gulf,” and considered to be the largest gas field in the world. “Combining both countries’ share, this is the largest single technical reserve in the world.”

Latin America is ranked second in the amount of potential technical reserves, with an estimated current value of about $149 billion, followed by Africa ($125 billion), Russia/Caspian fields ($78 billion), Asia Pacific ($67 billion), and Europe, $24 billion.

Depending on the current strategies of international oil companies, some may focus on regions with high resource volumes or high unit values, Highton said. A few countries exist “where these circumstances occur together, and generally that situation doesn’t last for long.” The regions “with the largest volumes of ‘good technicals’ are often those where access is difficult or impossible for international oil companies, such as parts of the Middle East, Russia or Latin America.”

Wood Mackenzie’s research also found that there are about 300 billion boe of undeveloped commercial reserves that “should be brought onstream in the next 10 years or so.” By hydrocarbon type, the undeveloped commercial reserves are weighted toward natural gas (60:40), while technical reserves comprise slightly more liquids (55:45).

“Significant regional variations exist, however,” said Highton. “Asia-Pacific is gas-dominated (85%) due to the huge gas discoveries offshore Australia and elsewhere, while both North and Latin America are oil-dominated (90%) due to their world-scale undeveloped Canadian and Venezuelan oilsands and heavy oil deposits.”

Commercializing the unfulfilled potential of undeveloped discoveries across the globe will not be easy, Highton said.

“There are a number of obstacles and complexities which continue to hamper efforts to tap into the $760 billion prize. These could be the lack of accessible markets or available infrastructure, political or environmental issues, operator constraints, or simply low resource volumes for the particular location.”

Technical fields face a range of challenges, but they are a “key component of many company portfolios and a key opportunity set for companies looking to expand. With sustained high oil and gas prices, advances in technology and stiff competition for quality opportunities, companies are looking to exploit the unfulfilled potential of these undeveloped resources,” he said.

“Today, many obstacles are simply beyond the influence of any one company. It will require investment, technical expertise, patience and diligence, by companies of all sizes, to overcome the challenges.”