Comparison of the Results of China’s Petroleum Resources Assessed by the U.S. Geological Survey World Petroleum Assessment 2000 and the China’s National Petroleum Assessment 2007
This study compares the results of China’s petroleum
resources assessed by the U.S. Geological Survey World Petroleum Assessment
2000 and the China’s national petroleum assessment 2007. The U.S.
Geological Survey World Petroleum Assessment 2000 estimated that the mean
undiscovered petroleum resources of China were respectively 12.12 billion
barrels of oil and 85.79 trillion cubic feet of gas, which is much smaller than
107.38 billion barrels of oil and 692.13 trillion cubic feet of gas assessed by
the China’s national petroleum assessment 2007. Six major factors
(including petroleum resource classification systems, data sources, assessment
scopes, unit divisions, assessment methods, and assessment parameters)
contributed to the differences of these two assessments. Undiscovered petroleum
resources did not include reserve growth estimates according to the definition
of the U.S. Geological Survey World Petroleum Assessment 2000 while undiscovered
resources of the China’s national petroleum assessment 2007 included
estimates of reserve growth. The U.S. Geological Survey World Petroleum
Assessment 2000 adopted much higher minimum field size than the China’s
national petroleum assessment 2007 did, so the former only covered six Chinese
basins while the latter evaluated 115 Chinese basins. For the same basins, unit
divisions of the U.S. Geological Survey World Petroleum Assessment 2000 also
differed from those of the China’s national petroleum assessment 2007
because of their different data sources, and exploration and exploitation
experiences. In addition, different methods used by these two agencies affected
their assessment results to some degree. From January 1996 to December 2009 (14
years), about 66% of the undiscovered oil resources and 121% of gas resources
estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey World Petroleum Assessment 2000 were
realized in nearly 50% of the 30-year forecast span (1995 through 2025). From
January 2004 to December 2009, 14% of undiscovered oil and gas volumes
estimated by the China’s national petroleum assessment 2007 were
discovered in the six assessed basins, where reserve growth of discovered oil
fields exceeded new-field discoveries while additions to gas reserves mainly
came from new gas fields.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90142 © 2012 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, April 22-25, 2012, Long Beach, California