Publications
Browse recent USGS publications related to energy resources.
Filter Total Items: 2713
Prospectivity mapping for geologic hydrogen
Geologic, or naturally occurring, hydrogen has the potential to become a new, low-carbon, primary energy resource. Often referred to as “white” or “gold” hydrogen, this gas occurs naturally in the Earth’s subsurface, similar to petroleum resources. However, unlike petroleum, which releases carbon dioxide when burned, burning hydrogen only produces water as a byproduct. Exploration for...
Authors
Sarah E. Gelman, Jane S. Hearon, Geoffrey S. Ellis
Chemostratigraphy of the Cretaceous Hue Shale in Arctic Alaska: Exploring paleoceanographic controls on trace element enrichment, organic matter accumulation, and source-rock evolution
We document chemostratigraphy in an outcrop of late Albian to early Campanian (∼103–82 Ma) marine source rocks to better understand paleoenvironmental controls on trace element (TE) enrichment and organic matter accumulation in the distal Colville foreland basin of Arctic Alaska and how those drivers are linked to arc volcanism and successions of Cretaceous oceanographic and climatic...
Authors
Palma J. Botterell, Margaret M. Sanders, David W. Houseknecht, Richard O. Lease, William A. Rouse, Katherine J. Whidden, Julie A. Dumoulin, Rebecca A. Smith, Christina A. DeVera, Brett J. Valentine
Hypothetical CO2 leakage into, and hydrological plume management within, an underground source of drinking water at a proposed CO2 storage facility, Kemper County, Mississippi, USA
A large Geologic Carbon Sequestration (GCS) hub has been proposed in Kemper County, Mississippi. The target injection interval consists of numerous Cretaceous-aged deep saline aquifers overlain by a competent and extensive regional sealing layer. Above the seal, the deepest Underground Source of Drinking Water (USDW) at the site is the Eutaw aquifer of the Eutaw Group and McShan...
Authors
Michelle R. Plampin, Matthew D. Merrill
Managing basin-scale carbon sequestration: A tragedy of the commons approach
The Tragedy of the Commons is a well studied problem in the literature of ecology, economics, and environmental policy which illustrates the deleterious consequences of managing common pool resources when individual and social incentives are misaligned. In this work, we apply a simple model of carbon sequestration in a deep saline aquifer by two neighboring geologic CO2 storage (GCS)...
Authors
Joseph E. Duggan, Jonathan D. Ogland-Hand, Steven T. Anderson, Richard S. Middleton
Methodology for inclusion of produced and stored carbon dioxide in the U.S. Geological Survey Federal lands greenhouse gas inventory
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed two new carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and sequestration accounting methods for use in future reports. The first method is a Federal lease-produced CO2 emissions calculation for an update of the report, “Federal Lands Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sequestration in the United States.” The methodology to incorporate Federal lease CO2...
Authors
Philip A. Freeman, Matthew D. Merrill
Three-dimensional temperature maps of the Williston Basin, USA: Implications for deep hot sedimentary and enhanced geothermal resources
As part of U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) efforts to identify and assess geothermal energy resources of the US, a three-dimensional (3D) geologic and thermal model has been constructed for the Williston Basin, USA. The geologic model consists of all sedimentary units above the Proterozoic and Archean crystalline rock (called basement herein), with a total sedimentary thickness of up to...
Authors
Sarah E. Gelman, Erick R. Burns
Federal lands greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration in the United States: Estimates for 2005–22
In 2016, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior requested that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) produce a publicly available and annually updated database of estimated greenhouse gas emissions associated with the extraction and use of fossil fuels from Federal lands. The first report in this series included emissions estimates from 2005 to 2014 and were reported for 29...
Authors
Matthew D. Merrill, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Philip A. Freeman
A methodology to estimate CO2 and energy gas storage resources in depleted conventional gas reservoirs
Depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs are subsurface geological structures capable of sequestering vast quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) as well as storing other energy gases for later usage, such as natural gas, and potentially hydrogen (H2). Here we outline a methodology to quantify multi-gas storage resources in depleted conventional gas reservoirs for usage in assessments by the United...
Authors
Matthew Madden Jones, Ashton M. Wiens, Marc Buursink, Sean T. Brennan, Philip A. Freeman, Brian A. Varela, Joao S. Gallotti, Peter D. Warwick
Deep syntectonic burial of the Anthracite belt, Eastern Pennsylvania
Fluid inclusion microthermometry and Raman spectroscopy of fluid inclusions in quartz veins from the Pennsylvanian rocks of the Anthracite belt, eastern Pennsylvania support a deep burial model of coalification in favor of focused orogenic hot fluid flow. High-temperature (250 to 255 °C) trapping of CH4 ± CO2 saturated aqueous fluids and CH4 ± CO2 inclusions indicate fluid trapping at...
Authors
Mark A. Evans, Aaron M. Jubb
Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources in the Norphlet Formation, U.S. Gulf Coast region, 2023
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 16 million barrels of oil and 348 billion cubic feet of gas in conventional reservoirs of the Norphlet Formation in the U.S. Gulf Coast region.
Authors
John W. Counts, William H. Craddock, Jared T. Gooley, Marc Buursink, Tracey J. Mercier, Cheryl A. Woodall, Christopher J. Schenk
Mitigating climate change by abating coal mine methane: A critical review of status and opportunities
Methane has a short atmospheric lifetime compared to carbon dioxide (CO2), ∼decade versus ∼centuries, but it has a much higher global warming potential (GWP), highlighting how reducing methane emissions can slow the rate of climate change. When considering the contribution of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to current global warming (2010–2019) relative to the industrial revolution (1850...
Authors
C. Özgen Karacan, Robert A. Field, Maria Olczak, Malgorzata Kasprzak, Felicia Ruiz, Stefan Schwietzke
Produced water geochemistry from hydraulically stimulated Niobrara Formation petroleum wells: Origin of salinity and temporal perspectives on treatment and reuse
Produced water (i.e., a mixture of returned injection fluids and geologic formation brines) represents the largest volumetric waste stream associated with petroleum production in the United States. As such, produced water has been the focus of intense study with emphasis on understanding the geologic origin of the fluids, environmental impacts of unintended or intentional release...
Authors
Aaron M. Jubb, Jenna L. Shelton, Bonnie McDevitt, Kaela K. Amundson, Amanda Sha Herzberg, Jessica Chenault, Andrew Laurence Masterson, Matthew S. Varonka, Glenn D. Jolly, Christina A. DeVera, Elliott Barnhart, Michael J. Wilkins, Madalyn S. Blondes