Covering 1,750 square miles from southern to central California, the Monterey shale formation has untapped deposits estimated at 15.4 billion barrels, according to the United States Energy Information Administration.
The high speed rail (to nowhere) runs right through it. Hmm...
A lot depends on who is doing the estimates. The EIA has been wildly inaccurate in the past, pump and dump stock hypesters have been worse, and the USGS tends to be conservative in their estimates (they have a scientific reputation to maintain, unlike the others) until given reason to revise those estimates upward. It was so with the Bakken with the USGS, but if I was going to be venturing capital, I’d take USGS estimates over the others in a heartbeat.