1 Energy Information Administration, Annual Survey of Domestic Oil and Gas Reserves Form EIA-23, Washington, DC, 2005.  Hereinafter referred to as the “Form EIA-23.”

2 Energy Information Administration, U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Liquids Reserves, DOE/EIA-0216(2004), Washington, DC, and earlier editions. Hereinafter referred to as the “EIA Reserves Report.”

3 Energy Information Administration, Annual Survey of Domestic Oil and Gas Reserves Form EIA-23L: Field Survey Instructions 2004, Washington, DC, page 11.  Prior to 1988, Form EIA-23 defined nonproducing crude oil and gas reserves within the context of reserves that were not being produced during the last 3 months of the calendar year.  Because the reported nonproducing reserve volumes did not change significantly between 1987 and 1988, it is not clear whether this change in the nonproducing reserve definition materially affected the volumes reported or by how much.

4 Ibid. page 8.

5  SEC Regulation S-X, § 210.4-10(a)(3) and § 210.4-10(a)(4).

6 Category I and II well operators produce at least 400,000 barrels of crude oil per year or 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas, whereas Category III well operators produce less than these volumes.  All Category I and II well operators must report both their total and nonproducing reserve volumes.  A randomly selected set of Category III well operators are required to report total reserve and production volumes, but not nonproducing reserves volumes.

7 “…a majority of the natural gas industry in North America have adopted 60°F and 14.73 psia as their standard reference conditions for expressing natural gas volumes and flow rates.” Source: Wikipedia at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_conditions_for_temperature_and_pressure

8 Unconventional gas is defined by the characteristics of the geological formation from which that gas is produced.   Unconventional gas is produced from three geologic formations: 1) coal seams, 2) shale formations, and 3) sandstone formations with 0.1 millidarcies or less of rock permeability.

9 To protect company confidentiality, the EIA reserve reports aggregate the small volumes of Alabama Federal Offshore crude oil and natural gas reserves with those of offshore Federal Louisiana.  Even so, the vast majority of these regional reserves are located in the Louisiana-Federal Offshore portion.

10 Source: Matthew R. Simmons, “The future costs of energy,” The Leading Edge, The Society of Exploration Geophysicists, October, 2004, pages 980 to 982.