More than half remains
The NPD presents annual resource accounts with an overview of total recoverable petroleum. These build on data reported by the operator companies, the NPD’s own assessment of fields and discoveries, and its estimate of undiscovered resources.
Where 2018 is concerned, the accounts show that – after almost 50 years of production – remaining resources still exceed those already produced. At 31 December 2018, total recoverable petroleum resources were estimated at 15.6 billion scm oe. Of this, 7.3 billion scm oe had been produced and sold.
The expected value for the remaining recoverable resources was 8.3 billion scm oe. It is estimated that around half of this still remains to be proven. Today’s estimate for total recoverable resources is about 50 per cent higher than in 1990.
Illustration: Distribution of total recoverable resources and uncertainty in the estimates at 31 December 2018.