Oil report: 565 billion barrels out there

The world excluding the United States holds 565 billion barrels of undiscovered, conventional oil and 5,606 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

These numbers represent technically recoverable resources, or quantities of oil and gas that can be produced using currently available technology and industry practices, regardless of accessibility or economic considerations, it said in a statement Wednesday on its website.

The data include the average estimate of resources in 171 geological provinces of the world, onshore and offshore, the agency said in its first assessment since 2000. Almost threequarters of the oil is in four regions: 126 billion barrels in South America and the Caribbean; 115 billion in sub-saharan Africa; 111 billion in the Middle East and North Africa; and 61 billion in Arctic areas of North America, according to the statement.

The report doesn’t include undiscovered, conventional resources in the U.S., which the agency estimates at 27 billion barrels of oil and 388 trillion cubic feet of gas on and offshore. There are an additional 81 billion barrels of oil and 398 trillion cubic feet of gas in the U.S. outer continental shelf, the statement said, citing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

A barrel is 42 gallons.