In Search of Reasonable Certainty: Oil and Gas Reserves Disclosure provides the analyses necessary to bring the reserve issue into sharper focus, reflecting the realities of today's global oil and gas industry and providing a clear understanding of the evolution of reserves reporting, the factors and forces challenging it today, as well as concepts and potential proposals that would help to realign the disclosure process with the business whose production potential it reflects.
The current regulatory regime-the 1978 System-emerged first and foremost as a response to the energy crises of the 1970s and fears about US vulnerability to dependence on foreign energy sources and future disruptions. It was rooted in the technologies and market structures of the 1950s and 1960s. The transformation of the industry since then makes a compelling case for modernizing the system to create a workable, constructive framework for the oil and gas industry in the 21st century that responds to the needs of both investors and consumers and that does indeed, in a very different world, meet the test of "reasonable certainty."
