SEC Official: Mulling New Oil Reserve Booking Guidelines

[phantom power]

In this case, by "modernization," they seem to mean "we'll allow you to make shit up and claim it as reserves." Which will allow economists to save Tinkerbell by clapping louder.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering changing the rules for how oil and gas companies book their reserves, a top SEC official said in a speech last week.

Reserves are oil companies' most important assets, and a modernization of the rules could mean billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas may be able to make it onto balance sheets, potentially triggering a revaluation of the sector.

Oil and gas companies have been lobbying the SEC to change the way regulators allows firms to book reserves, the companies' key financial benchmark, based on new technologies and exploration and production techniques.

Despite several major reviews and updated industry guidelines approved by the international Society of Petroleum Engineers, the World Petroleum Council and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the SEC has steadfastly maintained the same reserve booking standards since the late 1970s.

http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=49211