Contingent Resources: Definitions and Real World Examples

Leslie O'Connor and John Seidle
MHA Petroleum Consultants, Lakewood, CO

Hydrocarbon deposits progress through a variety of categories on their way to being classified as proved reserves. There are three broad categories currently recognized by the industry; prospective resources, contingent resources, and finally reserves.

The subject of this talk is contingent resources, which are considered discovered, technically recoverable volumes which are not currently economic.

Formal definitions will be presented, followed by examples in North Williston Basin unconventional oil, the Wyoming Baxter shale, and early San Juan Basin coal bed methane

Contingent resource evaluation is especially amenable to probabilistic analysis techniques.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90092©2009 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section, July 9-11, 2008, Denver, Colorado