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Originally Posted by w'or bobby
The proven part is problematic - all these "proven reserves" are unaudited by independent outsider auditors and hence not proven.
The numbers could be (and probably are) exaggerated by oil companies and by the Saudis among others.
Shell took 25% off their claimed reserves a couple of years ago.
They could be underestimates also - tho' it seems a good deal less likely.
Geologists are the pessimists in this discussion and economists are the optimists for once.
Where the numbers make less sense is in terms of how much we will need - rising oil costs will make alternatives more economically feasible.
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Publicly listed companies have their reserves audited. In fact that's why RDS had to write down its reserves back in 2003. Besides, it's not hard to derive an accurate estimate from widely available geological data. I'm not an expert, but I've got no problems betting money on disclosed reserve data.