Analysis from research center IHS finds advances in hydraulic fracturing used in the United States could unlock oil in mature fields outside North America.

IHS researchers looked into what would happen if new and advancing drilling techniques were applied to 170 mature oil fields that may have what was described as incremental hydrocarbon resources. By applying the new technology to low-productivity oil basins, IHS found there may be hundreds of billions of barrels of potential new oil.

"While our analysis was an initial, high-level assessment of low productivity plays outside the U.S., we were quite surprised at the impressive potential for increased recovery using these unconventional techniques," Susan Farrell, vice president of upstream energy research at IHS, said in a statement.

The research finds that of the 141 billion barrels of potential oil, about 95 percent of that would require hydraulic fracturing to produce.

Hydraulic fracturing uses water, abrasives and a trace amount of chemicals to coax oil and natural gas from formations that would be otherwise inaccessible through conventional drilling techniques.

IHS finds operators in France, China and Tunisia using new drilling technology to address geological and production changes in mature basins. Leta Smith, research director for exploration and production at IHS Energy, said combining unconventional with the conventional may "breathe new life" into mature basins.

"For operators with experience in these drilling and completion techniques," she said, "Mexico may be an attractive option for future investment, along with some of the 14 countries identified outside the Middle East, including Brazil, the U.K., Norway, Congo and Indonesia."