New Reserves Information Requirements

Resolution No 324 provides that the information shall be filed annually and must be certified by independent auditors of the companies that have been granted exploration permits and/or production concessions of hydrocarbons. Such auditors must comply with certain requirements including their registration with a registry of auditors denominated “Registro de Profesionales, Empresas y Entidades Certificadores de Reservas y Recursos Hidrocarburos Líquidos y Gaseosos” to be carried by the Subsecretariat of Gas.

Under the provisions of the prior General Resolution No 482/1998 of the Secretariat of Energy this information was filed every two years.

The companies shall inform the demonstrated, non-demonstrated and provable reserves and crude oil and natural gas resources until the end of the period of each concession or until the end of the recoverable production of each field. 

This information must be filed before March 31 of each year. Filings corresponding to the year 2005 shall have an additional term of 90 days counted as from April 1, 2006.

Resolution No 324 includes definitions of “reserves”, “demonstrated reserves”, “non-demonstrated reserves”, “development demonstrated reserves”, “demonstrated non-development reserves”, “provable reserves”, “possible reserves” and “resources”.  Such terms are defined following the criteria adopted by SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers), WPC (World Petroleum Congress) and AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologists).

Resolution No 324 complements Resolution No 2057/2005 issued on December 26, 2005, which requires upstream companies to inform the Secretariat of Energy the investments made or projected to be made and their resulting expectations of production of crude oil, natural gas and sub-products to be offered.