The
first meeting of the Intersociety Exploratory Committee on the potential
establishment of a Certification of Petroleum Reserves Evaluators
program was held in late September at the Society of Petroleum Engineers
annual meeting in Houston.
The committee,
with representatives from AAPG, SPE and the Society of Petroleum
Evaluation Engineers (SPEE), will evaluate the merits, interest
and importance of establishing a Voluntary Certification Program
for Petroleum Reserves Evaluators.
"During
the past year there has been a lot of publicity regarding reserves
write-downs and concerns about the reliability of reserves disclosures,"
said Daniel J. Tearpock, AAPG representative to the committee. "From
the standpoint of oil and gas companies and their investors, to
Wall Street and the SEC, reserves are an important part of everyday
life in the energy industry."
"We now
have a business environment that demands higher standards throughout
the energy industry and particularly the oil and gas sector," said
Ron Harrell, at-large committee representative. "The investor deserves
the assurance that a company's reserves estimates have been prepared
by qualified individuals who are trained to meet international industry
standards."
Harrell,
CEO at Ryder Scott, identified several vital components of a potential
certification program, including recommended geoscience and engineering
practices, reserves definitions, better standards, testing, continuing
education and ethics, and he emphasized that this initiative is
oriented toward individual professionals, not companies or corporations.
Richard
Miller, SPEE representative, said the committee's mission is "to
evaluate the importance and feasibility of such an initiative, and
to define the requirements for the certification of geoscience and
engineering petroleum reserves evaluators. "If the committee sees
merit in moving forward with this initiative, the committee will
recommend such action to our respective societies."
In the
coming weeks, the committee said it will more clearly define its
mission, the overall goals and milestones, and establish a timetable
for future action.