Petroleo Brazileiro SA (Petrobras) reported that a new well drilled in the Tupi area of the Santos basin off Brazil further confirms reserves estimates of 5-8 billion boe of light oil and natural gas.

Estimated ultimate recovery of more than 100 million bbl of oil has been confirmed for OMV AG-operated Maari field and adjacent Manaia field in the offshore portion of New Zealand’s Taranaki basin, two of the field’s partners said.

Improved horizontal completion techniques in the North Texas Barnett Combo play have led EOG Resources Inc. to estimate that ultimate recoveries in one area will be 80% higher than the company’s early 2008 estimates in the play.

Proved US crude oil reserves fell by more than 10% in 2008, but there would likely have been a smaller drop or perhaps even an increase under new Securities and Exchange Commission rules.

The OMV-led joint venture at Maari oil field in the Taranaki basin off New Zealand has confirmed additional produceable oil reserves are contained within a separate reservoir, designated M2A, about 50 m above the main Moki formation.

Elm Coulee field, Montana’s primary Bakken shale oil producing field discovered in 2000, is a giant that is expected to recover more than 200 million bbl.

Trinidad and Tobago has proved gas reserves of 15.4 tcf and another 30 tcf in unrisked exploration potential, according to recent findings of Ryder Scott Consultants.

Questerre Energy Corp., Calgary, said consulting engineers estimated a range of 2.2 to 8 tcf of gas net to Questerre to be recoverable from Ordovician Utica shale in the deep fairway of Quebec’s St. Lawrence Lowlands.

Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, on a visit to the town of Igarka in Krasnoyarsk Territory, boasted that the region will eventually provide more than 115 million tons/year of “additional oil and condensate” on reaching its estimated capacity.

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.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. has drilled six wells in an apparent giant gas-condensate field in California’s San Joaquin basin that has an estimated 150-250 million boe recoverable.

Noble Energy Inc., Houston, hiked its resource estimate 26% to 6.3 tcf after the Tamar appraisal well in the eastern Mediterranean off Israel “confirmed continuous high-quality reservoirs.”

More than 76 billion boe may be technically recoverable on the Barents Sea shelf, the US Geological Survey said.

Consulting engineers arrived at a best estimate of 67.3 tcf of gas in place in the overpressured Carboniferous Frederick Brook shale in the Sussex and Elgin subbasins in southern New Brunswick, said Corridor Resources Inc., Halifax.

Reevaluation of shale plays has pushed the Potential Gas Committee’s assessment of the US natural gas resource to its highest level ever.