Title: What is unconventional oil and how does it impact oil resources evaluation and ultimately oil prices?

Authors: Abdallah Harouaka

Addresses: Engineering and Technology Faculty, University of Texas of the Permian Basin, Texas 79762, USA

Abstract: Unconventional oil resources have become a real game changer over the last few years. As a result, the overall oil industry here in the USA and elsewhere has been completely rejuvenated. This paper presents a coherent definition of unconventional oil resources and their relation to conventional oil. Unconventional oil production costs are much higher than the corresponding costs for similar grade conventional oil. However, this difference in production costs is not reflected in the price of oil, which is unsustainable. Standards for linking unconventional oil resources to oil prices are discussed in this paper, and outlined the rational distinction between conventional and unconventional oil.

Keywords: oil resources evaluation; unconventional oil resources; standards; oil prices; oil industry; oil production costs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSS.2014.067353

International Journal of Services and Standards, 2014 Vol.9 No.2/3/4, pp.116 - 129

Received: 02 May 2014
Accepted: 23 Oct 2014
Published online: 06 Feb 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article