Can Reasonable Certainty be Assessed from Disclosed Proved Reserves Revisions?

E. Morales, John W. Lee
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

If properly estimated, technical revisions to disclosed proved reserves can be used to establish the reasonable certainty of both proved developed and undeveloped reserves. The trends in these technical revisions are important because they should result in overall positive revisions in EUR within a representative time period. If this criterion is not met, then the proved status of the reserves disclosed becomes questionable with the implications that this may have in depreciation, profit and loss, impairment tests and other reserves indicators where proved reserves are used. Unfortunately, in our review of the annual proved reserves revisions of developed and undeveloped proved reserves disclosed by companies to the SEC, we identified different interpretations and inconsistencies in the annual changes of proved reserves. We used data from annual reports issued between 2010 and 2020 by 141 companies, complemented by hundreds of comment letters issued by the SEC during this period, and found that companies did not apply the regulations and standards consistently, highlighting the limited effect the SEC comment letters have had in improving clarity and understanding in this important area of reserves estimation and categorization. We identified several issues which, if not carefully considered, may lead to incorrect interpretations and conclusions regarding the reliability and comparability of the disclosed proved reserves annual changes and their embedded level of certainty. The paper highlights different interpretations of key definitions and the different approaches and practices that seem to exist in companies when evaluators estimate, categorize, and disclose annual proved reserves changes due to revisions, improved recovery and extensions and discoveries, with special focus on isolating the technical revisions. We also show that the approach that some companies use to estimate the impact of changes due to changes in economic factors in the disclosed proved reserves leads to incorrect estimates and distorts the overall results or comparisons between companies. The evidence shown in the paper calls for improved and systematic official guidance if the proved reserves disclosures are to be used in a practical and useful manner. In the absence of such official guidance, this paper provides a simple project-based framework that may be used to properly analyze and extract value from the disclosed annual changes of proved reserves to improve the alignment, consistency, and proper interpretation of the disclosed proved reserves information and ensure that annual reserves changes do not end up being useless, impractical, or unreliable.
能否从披露的探明储量修订中评估合理的确定性?
如果估算得当,对已披露的探明储量进行技术修订,可用于确定已探明储量和未开发储量的合理确定性。这些技术修正的趋势很重要,因为它们会导致欧元在一个有代表性的时间段内的整体正修正。如果不符合这一标准,则披露的储备的已证实状况就会受到质疑,这可能对折旧、损益、减值测试和使用已证实储备的其他储备指标产生影响。不幸的是,在我们审查公司向SEC披露的已开发和未开发探明储量的年度探明储量修订时,我们发现了探明储量年度变化的不同解释和不一致之处。我们使用了141家公司在2010年至2020年间发布的年度报告数据,并结合了SEC在此期间发布的数百封意见信,发现这些公司并没有始终贯彻执行这些法规和标准,这凸显了SEC意见信在提高储量估算和分类这一重要领域的清晰度和理解方面的有限作用。我们发现了几个问题,如果不仔细考虑,可能会导致对披露的已探明储量年度变化的可靠性和可比性的不正确解释和结论,以及它们隐含的确定性水平。本文强调了对关键定义的不同解释,以及在评估人员估计、分类和披露由于修订、提高采收率、扩展和发现而导致的年度探明储量变化时,公司似乎存在的不同方法和实践,并特别关注隔离技术修订。我们还表明,一些公司用于估计由于披露的已探明储量中经济因素变化而导致的变化的影响的方法导致不正确的估计,并扭曲了公司之间的总体结果或比较。如果要以实际和有用的方式使用已探明储量的披露,论文中显示的证据要求改进和系统的官方指导。在缺乏官方指导的情况下,本文提供了一个简单的基于项目的框架,可用于从披露的探明储量年度变化中正确分析和提取价值,以提高披露的探明储量信息的一致性、一致性和正确解释,并确保年度储量变化最终不会无用、不切实际或不可靠。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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