Offshore Hydrocarbon Resource Estimation: The Minerals Management Service's Methodology

摘要

Estimating the potential future resources of oil and gas on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) is a crucial first step in establishing an OCS leasing program consistent with a prudent national energy policy. Estimates of undiscovered OCS oil and natural gas are referred to during the discussion of numerous policy, political, legal, and environmental issues that arise during the conduct of the federal leasing program. At the request of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the U.S. Department of the Interior, a 10-member committee of the National Research Council was formed in late 1984 to evaluate the regional resource estimation methodology that MMS has used and is further developing. The central goal of a national energy policy is to foster an adequate supply of energy at reasonable prices. Because much of the 1.1 billion acres within the offshore jurisdiction of the United States is unexplored, the federal government has a pivotal role in the exploration and development of these areas, which may contain undiscovered oil and natural gas resources. The report discusses the great uncertainties that are involved in these resource assessments, describes the various methods used by MMS and others to generate these assessments, and presents the committee's conclusions and recommendations concerning MMS's assessment procedures.