Denver independent Venoco Inc. sees 2010 as the year it begins to exploit California's Miocene Monterey shale in earnest and believes more than 10 billion bbl of original oil in place exist on its onshore acreage. The Monterey shale play is only now emerging, but the formation may hold the largest shale resource in the US with 300 billion bbl in place, said Timothy Marquez, Venoco chairman and chief executive officer. Monterey holds more than 2 billion bbl on its leases, Venoco estimated. Venoco, which began geologic studies on the Monterey 4 years ago, has now amassed 200,000 prospective acres and is still leasing onshore. The package includes offshore leases held by productio...