In April 2011, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a report entitled, “World Shale Gas Resources: An Initial Assessment of 14 Regions Outside the United States”. This report includes the best estimates of global shale resources available. The data has been reproduced below.
| Region | Technically Recoverable Resources | Percentage of Continent | Percentage of Total Areas Examined | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Continent | Country | (Bcf) | (% of continent) | (% of total) |
| North America | 1,931 | 29% | ||
| United States | 862 | 44.6% | 13.0% | |
| Mexico | 681 | 35.3% | 10.3% | |
| Canada | 388 | 20.1% | 5.9% | |
| Asia | 1,389 | 21% | ||
| China | 1,275 | 91.8% | 19.3% | |
| India | 63 | 4.9% | 1.0% | |
| Pakistan | 51 | 81.0% | 0.8% | |
| South America | 1,225 | 18% | ||
| Argentina | 774 | 63.2% | 11.7% | |
| Brazil | 226 | 29.2% | 3.4% | |
| Chile | 64 | 28.3% | 1.0% | |
| Paraguay | 62 | 96.9% | 0.9% | |
| Bolovia | 48 | 77.4% | 0.7% | |
| Uruguay | 21 | 43.8% | 0.3% | |
| Colombia | 19 | 90.5% | 0.3% | |
| Venezuela | 11 | 57.9% | 0.2% | |
| Europe | 639 | 10% | ||
| Poland | 187 | 29.3% | 2.8% | |
| France | 180 | 28.2% | 2.7% | |
| Norway | 83 | 13.0% | 1.3% | |
| Ukraine | 42 | 6.6% | 0.6% | |
| Sweden | 41 | 6.4% | 0.6% | |
| Denmark | 23 | 3.6% | 0.3% | |
| UK | 20 | 3.1% | 0.3% | |
| Others | 19 | 3.0% | 0.3% | |
| Netherlands | 17 | 2.7% | 0.3% | |
| Turkey | 15 | 2.3% | 0.2% | |
| Germany | 8 | 1.3% | 0.1% | |
| Lithuania | 4 | 0.6% | 0.1% | |
| Africa | 1,042 | 16% | ||
| South Africa | 485 | 46.5% | 7.3% | |
| Libya | 290 | 27.8% | 4.4% | |
| Algeria | 231 | 22.2% | 3.5% | |
| Tunisia | 18 | 1.7% | 0.3% | |
| Morocco | 11 | 1.1% | 0.2% | |
| Western Sahara | 7 | 0.7% | 0.1% | |
| Mauritania | - | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
| Australia | 396 | 6% | ||
| Total | 6,622 | |||
| Source: EIA | ||||