Unocal Corp. said it replaced 136 percent of its worldwide crude oil and natural gas production during 2000 with new proved reserves.
At year-end 2000, Unocal's worldwide reserves totaled 1.72 billion barrels-of-oil-equivalent (BOE), up 4 percent from 1.65 billion BOE the year before.
During 2000, the company added reserves of 168 million BOE from discoveries/extensions and improved recovery. The company also added 143 million BOE from acquisitions.
The increases were offset partially by the sale of 19 million BOE and price-related revisions, which reduced reserves by a net 46 million BOE.
Unocal's North America operations replaced 143 percent of production with new reserves. Unocal booked more than 52 million BOE from discoveries, extensions and improved recovery and 94 million BOE from acquisitions.
The year-end 2000 reserves include 100 percent of the reserves of Pure Resources, Inc., a 65-percent-owned subsidiary. No reserves were booked for deepwater Gulf of Mexico discoveries.
Unocal's international operations replaced 129 percent of production. This reflected the effects of 52 million BOE in negative price-related revisions under the terms of certain production-sharing contracts (PSCs).
The negative price revisions are the result of higher crude oil and natural gas prices that reduce entitlement volumes attributable to the future recovery of costs.
In addition to proved reserves, Unocal has significant discovery volumes in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, as well as in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Myanmar and Thailand that await either market development or official project sanction.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
