SEC Requirements for Conventional Oil Reserves Reporting"Oil and gas reserves are "proved" if their economic production is reasonably certain. To add clarity, the new rules define "reasonable certainty" to mean a "high degree of confidence that quantities will be recovered." The SEC also defines "high degree of confidence" to mean a quantity that is "much more likely to be achieved than not."
The current rules require companies to use specific limited standards, such as actual production and flow tests, to meet the "reasonable certainty" standard to prove its reserves."