David Hughes report for Post Carbon Institute, Drilling California: A Reality Check on the Monterey Shale, was referenced in this article on the EIA’s recent downgrade of recoverable oil from the Monterey play.

From the article:

Last night, the LA Times’ Louis Sahagun reported a piece of data dynamite the Energy Information Administration plans to detonate under California next month: There now appears to be just 600 million barrels of recoverable tight oil in the state’s vast Monterey shale play — a downward revision of 96% from the agency’s 2011 estimate.

The revision seems to have been predicted in a report from geoscientist J. David Hughes, best known for his work on Canadian oil formations, and published by the Post Carbon Institute in December. Hughes warned that Monterey’s geology, while superficially similar to marquee tight oil plays in Texas and North Dakota, actually contains an enormous number of irregularities that would make it difficult to ever successfully extract the resources.

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