Reserves Inventory Overview
Reserves
according to the
Society of Petroleum Engineers' (SPE) definition are those portions
of identified oil or gas resources that can be extracted using current
technology. They represent quantities of hydrocarbons, which are anticipated
to be commercially recovered from known accumulations from a given date
forward.
The
DOI is required under the
OCS Lands Act to “...conduct a continuing investigation… for the
purpose of determining the availability of all oil and natural gas produced
or located on the Outer Continental Shelf.” MMS’s Reserves Inventory
Program represents a significant part of the Resource Evaluation scope and
further contributes to:
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Energy supply forecasting; |
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Public policy decisions; |
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Independent assessment/verification; |
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Assuring fair value in public/private transactions; |
The
reserves inventory component of the RE Program assigns new producible leases
to fields and establishes field limits. The RE Program also
develops independent estimates of original amounts of natural gas and oil in
discovered fields by conducting field
reserve studies and reviews of fields, sands and reservoirs on
the OCS. The Program periodically revises the estimates of remaining natural
gas and oil to reflect new discoveries, development information and annual
production.
A
field is an area consisting of a single reservoir or multiple
reservoirs all grouped on, or related to, the same general geological
structural feature and/or stratigraphic trapping condition. There maybe two
or more reservoirs in a field that are separated vertically by impervious
strata, laterally by geologic barriers, or by both.
Hydrocarbons (gas and oil) estimated on the basis of geologic
knowledge to exist outside of known accumulations are
undiscovered resources.
Hydrocarbons whose location and quantity are known or estimated from
specific geologic evidence are
discovered resources.
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