"Proved reserves" refers to the estimated amount of a natural resource, such as oil or gas, that can be extracted with a high level of confidence. It represents the quantity that geological and engineering data suggest can be economically produced based on current technology and industry conditions.
Full definition
Thanks to fracking and horizontal drilling,
proven reserves of gas and oil are soaring, holding fossil fuel prices in check.
But the greatest threat to the industry comes from oil price changes impacting the cash flows coming
from proven reserves.
It focuses
on proven reserves, examines the evolving nature of the energy mix in countries worldwide and highlights emerging energy sources and technologies.
Most proven reserves are in countries that extremely secretive, and the big oil companies aren't exactly open and honest either.
Because
proved reserves depend on economic factors, they increase and / or decrease as prices and extraction costs change.
It is certainly the case that
current proven reserves will take us well past 2 °C if completely consumed and the CO2 emitted.
The share of shale gas compared with total natural
gas proved reserves increased from 45 percent in 2013 to 51 percent in 2014.
CRC estimates that if it had owned 100 % of the field last year, these interests would have added approximately 64 million BOE of
proved reserves at year - end 2017, of which approximately 75 % are considered proved developed.
Except for the high case, these high rates of consumption (indicated by committed resources as of 2050, the sum of cumulative production and
proved reserves by then) leave relatively few oil resources to be developed after 2050.
Between 1990 and 2015, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in Alberta increased by 56 %, primarily due to the increase in the oil and gas industry for export markets: in fact, the province's oilsands are home to the third
largest proven reserves of oil in the world.
Further, even using the IHS approach of no reinvestment and looking at current
proven reserves only, deterioration in the oil price driven by expectations of future demand weakness could cause cash flows to weaken and valuations to fall.
New Mexico had the third - largest increase in crude oil and lease
condensate proved reserves in 2014, benefitting from the same Permian Basin developments as Texas.
To go out to 2035 requires going
beyond proven reserves — and this is where the majority of the risk probably lies — in developing the projects which current revenues are being reinvested in.
Falling prices, in contrast, cause supply to be shut in and turn what were once considered
proven reserves into stranded assets that remain in the ground.
In our opinion, Range's operating and finding costs are well below average, and the company shows rapid growth in production as well
as proven reserves.
Unfortunately,
proven reserves amount to three times that amount, amply validating Lynas» 2008 assessment that peak oil will not save us.
Additionally, the SEC requires oil and gas companies, in filings made with the SEC, to
disclose proved reserves, which are those quantities of oil and gas, which, by analysis of geoscience and engineering data, can be estimated with reasonable certainty to be economically producible — from a given date forward, from known reservoirs, under existing economic conditions, operating methods, and governmental regulations.
As of December 31, 2016, the Company had
net proved reserves of 568 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBoe).
«Oil company stocks are valued in large part based on how
much proved reserves they have,» says Robert Kaufman, an expert on world oil markets and director of Boston University's Center for Energy and Environmental Studies.
And it's not difficult to ascertain, say, a $ 175 per
oz proved reserves M&A multiple is perfectly reasonable.
I also haircut Probable Reserves (
vs. Proved Reserves), and only include some Resources on occasion.
«They are liquid in that there is a real market, current commodity prices notwithstanding, for high -
quality proved reserves of oil and gas.»
Its Statistical Review of World Energy predicts that there are
enough proven reserves in the world to last another forty years at current rates, which is a lot longer than most Peak Oil
USA: 28 billion
bbl proven reserves, plus another 190 billion bbl est. technically recoverable, 3.7 trillion bbl estimated oil shale Canada: 22 billion bbl proven, 1.7 trillion bbl est. recoverable from tar sands, 250 billion bbl from shale Russia: 79 billion bbl proven, additional 50 billion bbl est. recoverable excl.
(But) revisions to
proved reserves occur constantly, reflecting changes in economic conditions as well as investment in additional recovery or better understanding of a field's geology....»
Since the low point in 2005, natural gas production in the US has risen every year (
although proved reserves fell in 2012).
While natural gas reserves reached another record in 2014 and oil reserves were the highest since 1972, the technically recoverable resources from which they came are enormous and will continue to
supply proved reserves for Americans for decades to come.
Rather than finding ways to curtail fossil fuel production in line with the demands of climate science, the U.S. federal government, under President Obama's «All of the Above» energy strategy, is currently channeling more than $ 5 billion each year in exploration subsidies to actually
expand proven reserves, leading to the discovery of fossil fuels that we know we should never burn.
Assuming just one third of these deposits
become proven reserves, this adds a further 19GtCO2e to South Africa's domestic coal consumption.