SPE, Russia to align reserves classifications

Nov. 24, 2009
The Society of Petroleum Engineers and the FGU State Commission on Mineral Reserves of Russia (GKZ) have entered into a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on programs to enhance the global understanding of petroleum reserves and resources.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 24
-- The Society of Petroleum Engineers and the FGU State Commission on Mineral Reserves of Russia (GKZ) have entered into a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on programs to enhance the global understanding of petroleum reserves and resources.

Under the agreement, GKZ and SPE will form a joint work group to map the Russian reserves classification system to the SPE Petroleum Resources Management System during 2010-11. Neither system is expected to be changed as a direct result of the MOU, and any changes will be made at the sole discretion of the relevant organization, SPE said.

The alignment of the two classification and categorization systems will help to ensure greater consistency of petroleum reserves and resource estimates.

The two organizations also will work together to develop a workshop to be held in Moscow in 2010 on reserves estimation and classification to enhance the understanding of the technical issues related to reserves and resource assessments.

Behrooz Fattahi, 2010 SPE president, said, “We believe that this is an important step in developing a global understanding of international classification and categorization systems with the active participation of Russia. SPE looks forward to working with GKZ on this important effort.”

Yuri Podturkin, general director of GKZ, said, “GKZ provides conditions for the rational and fullest use of the petroleum resources in Russia. We are pleased to establish cooperation between the SPE Oil and Gas Reserves Committee and GKZ to facilitate the alignment of reserves evaluation systems.”

A new Petroleum Resources Management System was approved by SPE’s board of directors in March 2007, culminating 2 years of intense collaboration by SPE, the World Petroleum Council, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers, including wide industry comment. SPE seeks collaboration with other standards in use around the world.

Federal State Authority State Reserves Commission of the Russian Federation is the state authority carrying out the review of reserves and geological, economic, and ecological information on the subsoil blocks provided. The main objective is the provision of efficient and integrated use of natural resources and reliable state resources recording. Decisions made by the commission are based on knowledge and expertise of highly qualified professionals acting as per objective and independent criteria (www.gkz-rf.ru).