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SEC's New Plan Could Revamp Oil and Gas Reporting Rules

Gorilla: actually its a way to drag the SEC into the current century. The article did a horrendous job of explaining the "booking" of unconventional resources in that it makes it sound like unconventional resources aren't booked today. Some of them are, there is just a very tight restriction of what can and can't be included. For instance, in the Barnett Shale, it is geologically proven that the shale stretches out across a very large area. But, companies can only book reserves for wells drilled and then one spacing unit around that well. But the resource is located all around it. The new rules will allow the recognition of the additional resource, but place it in a category that denotes that it must be drilled/developed before it makes it to the "Proved Developed" category.

Also, the author (and or Mr. McMahon who he quotes) made a catastrophic mistake toward the end. BG did not buy "a 25% stake in CHK" and "in the Fayetteville". BP, not BG, bought a 25% stake in the Fayetteville Shale holdings of CHK. That's a far cry from buying a 25% stake in the entire company and he got the companies wrong. Kind of makes you wonder if you really should take stock advice from someone who can make this sort of mistake!