October 31, 1975 - Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum

Recommendation. Further efforts to develop improved mathematical and
statistical approaches to undiscovered oil and gas resources should be
assigned a low priority.
Combined Geologic-Volumetric and Statistical Approach
Through an interagency agreement, FEA funded the maximum effort
that USGS could undertake to evaluate undiscovered oil and gas resources
in the United States. The results, published as USGS Circular 725
present the most recent and comprehensive set of oil and gas undiscovered
resource data for the Nation.
Recommendations. FEA recommends the following:
1. Create a task force from Government and industry to standardize
resource classifications and nomenclature. Considerable confusion has
arisen because the terms resources and reserves are often used imprecisely
and without indication of degree of identification or the extent
of recovery implied.
2. Encourage carefully planned exploratory efforts in relatively
untested geological provinces. A high proportion of "undiscovered
recoverable resources ll is presumed to be located in those provinces.
Their exploration would reduce some important uncertainties in our
national energy planning.
3. Investigate the extent to which changes in economic parameters
can be incorporated in resource evaluations.
4. Encourage scientific contributions to Government-wide efforts
to improve estimates of oil and gas resources.
Reserves
Accurate and independent evaluations of oil and gas reserves will
continue to be an important function of the Federal Government. Periodic
Government estimates of oil and gas reserves at the National and
State levels of aggregation can be most efficiently generated through
direct surveys of field operators. However, these periodic estimates
are not required on a three month basis as now mandated, but would br
most useful on a biennial basis.
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