SystemNew Ventures, Exploration & Reserves

Proved Undeveloped Reserves Review

Proved undeveloped reserves tested against their five-year line the morning a rig schedule changes, so the reserves committee settles each pad weeks before year-end.

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Follow one rig slip from 08:40 to 10:43 ↓

The problem

A rig stand-down in spring can sink proved undeveloped reserves by year-end

The reserves schedule sits with engineering, the rig schedule with drilling and the budget with finance. Each one is reissued through the year, and nobody lines them up against the booked locations until the year-end review. By then the plan that moved in the spring has quietly pushed whole pads past their line.

The first person to ask why a location is still undrilled may be the outside auditor, or a reader comparing what was promised with what was drilled. The answer then has to be rebuilt from minutes, rig sheets and budget versions nobody tied together.

Built forReserves engineersDrilling plannersCapital budget analystsReserves committees

The Problem Today

Rig plans and budgets move all year, and booked locations slip past their line while nobody is looking.

5 years: for an adopted plan to drill each undrilled location published

Lined up by hand today

Reserves
Rig plans
Budgets
Minutes

Found at year-endThe review comes months after the plan moved
Promises are easy to checkDrilled against promised can be read from outside

The Solution

Read the changeMinutes, rig sheets and budgets read the day they land, with the passage
Re-sort the runwayEach booked location tested against its own line once the planner confirms
Find open rig daysAgents check each rig and say what can honestly come back inside
Decide and signPad by pad, with reasons on file, then the chair and the controller

Built-in controls

Chair must open the memo and a sample to sign
The controller signs each keep past the line
Agents never adopt a plan or move a rig

What You Get

The committee settles a plan change weeks before the audit, with reasons on file and a year-end file that adds up.

Promises checked firstDrilled against promised, with the reason for each miss
Each location tiedOne plan line and one budget line, exceptions listed
A year-end file in orderLast year-end to this one, each committee decision in it

The morning Rev 12 landed

One rig stand-down and 47 proved undeveloped locations, settled by 10:43

The board has stood a pad rig down for two quarters to hold spending flat, and the new rig schedule is issued at 08:40. This is that morning, from the first reading to the second signature.

demoThe field, its rigs and pads, the people and the volumes are all sample data.

0108:52
642 locations, 214.0 million barrels, and a rig schedule nobody has read
Reserves engineer
Each thin bar is one booked location, from the year it was booked to its planned spud. Every booking year has its own five-year line, drawn as a stair, and nothing hangs past it yet. In the corner, the plan reader has found Rev 12 with the signed board minutes: Rig 3 stands down, pending the drilling planner.
0209:06
Rev 12 moves Rig 3 to the next July and takes $91M from next year
Drilling planner
Rig plans are his, so the reading waits for him. A contract extension sits in draft, and older revisions moved no location. Rev 12 puts the next well on Rig 3 six months later, 181 days lost, and next year’s budget from $950M to $859M, each line with its page.
0309:09
Confirming one reading re-tests 642 clocks before he looks away
Drilling planner
He confirms the reading, and the re-test starts on the spot. The log beside the runway shows each hand-off: 94 Rig 3 wells moved, all 8 rigs checked with Rig 4 showing 144 free days, the budget tied to $859M, and a pad-by-pad memo drafted. A draft schedule would have moved nothing.
0409:13
47 locations past the five-year line, named the day the schedule landed
Reserves engineer
Amber slivers now hang past each stair: 47 locations and 38.2 million barrels of 214.0. Their wells had 0 to 180 days of slack, less than the 181 days lost. Pad order is fixed, so a six-month gap pushes far more than the twelve wells Rig 3 would have drilled.
0509:26
Rig 4 has 140 days to spare, and Pad 8 needs 139.5
Drilling planner
Before anyone asked, the rig finder had checked each rig. Rig 4 finishes its own pads and sits idle for 144 days, less 4 to move. Pad 8 is the last pad, with exactly 9 wells at 15.5 days a well, so pad order holds. The planner puts Pad 8 on Rig 4 himself, and funding waits for the budget analyst.
0609:47
Funded and re-tested, all nine wells sit back inside their line
Reserves engineer
The budget analyst has moved $68.4M into the earlier year, since a location with no budget line is a wish. The pad re-tested at once, and its wells now show 141 to 17 days left. Only now does the decision open for the reserves engineer, with the reason back inside the line on another rig. He keeps all 9.
0710:10
Four pads move out of proved undeveloped, one opened pad at a time
Reserves engineer
A rig takes whole pads, so each pad is one decision. Pads 4 to 7 have no free rig and no adopted plan that drills them inside five years. He opens each pad and its sources before moving it out. The table closes at 9 kept and 38 moved out, 9.1 and 29.1 million barrels.
0810:19
The chair cannot sign until she opens the memo and four records
Chief reserves engineer, committee chair
Above the resolution sits the chain of who did what. Signing waits until the chair has read the reasons memo and opened four sampled locations. This one is a keep: on Rig 3 it would spud 56 days past its line, on Rig 4 inside it. She can agree, or send it back with her reason.
0910:37
Nothing takes effect until the controller signs second
Corporate controller
The chair signed at 10:32. The controller opens the same resolution: 9 kept, 38 moved out, 29.1 million barrels, 13.6% of proved undeveloped. No location is kept past its line, and the dialog says what the chair opened. Either of them can send it back in writing.
1010:43
604 locations and 184.9 million barrels, signed 8 weeks before year-end
Reserves committee
On the signed resolution the runway re-sorts, and nothing hangs past a stair. The 38 moved-out wells stay in the drilling plan and come back as proved when drilled. The question an auditor would ask in the new year already has an answer on file, with names, times and pages.

Rig 3 lost twelve wells of work, and 47 PUD locations crossed the line

Pad order is fixed so that new wells do not sit beside drained rock, and lines fall due each year-end. Every well within 181 days of its line lands past it.

Pad	Wells past the line	Million barrels	Decision
Pad 4	8 of 20	5.9	Move out
Pad 5	10 of 22	7.3	Move out
Pad 6	10 of 21	7.8	Move out
Pad 7	10 of 22	8.0	Move out
Pad 8	9 of 9	9.1	Keep on Rig 4

demoSample data, from the working solution. Pad 7 has 22 wells, and a rig takes whole pads.

Pad 8 fits on Rig 4 with half a day to spare

The rig finder does this sum before anyone asks. The keep rests on it, and on a real rig date the planner set.

Rig 4 idle after its own pads	144 days
Moving the rig	4 days
Left for Pad 8	140 days
Pad 8 needs: 9 wells at 15.5 days a wellSo the keep asks for no exception past five years	139.5 days

demoSample data, from the working solution.

Around the runway

Promises, ties and the year-end file behind the PUD development plan

The same reserves through the rest of the year. Select a screen to enlarge it.

What-if on the five-year runway: Rig 3 two quarters later, 0 to 47 past the line and 0.0 to 38.2 million barrels, marked nothing is saved — **What if a rig slips**Press plus beside a rig and the runway re-sorts from the real rows. Two quarters on Rig 3 shows 0 to 47 past the line, and saves nothing.

Reasons memo open over the committee screen: what changed, why 47 wells land past their lines and not 12, then Pad 4 and Pad 5 with their reasons — **The reasons memo**What changed, what it did, then each pad with its reason. The chair reads it before any sampled record.

PUD conversion rate screen: promised against drilled by year, 129 of 152 last year at 85%, with start-of-year counts and reasons for each miss — **Promised against drilled**Last year 129 of 152 promised were drilled, 85%. Misses sit beside the bars by reason, so the engineer sees what an outside reader will.

Ties to plan and budget: 9 locations where reserves and rig plan dates differ, with 6 lacking a budget line and 8 an operator plan, each open with an owner — **Ties that will not close**One plan line and one budget line per location. 23 do not tie yet; drilling or finance owns each, by a set day, and they hold the year-end file.

Year-end file of proved undeveloped change: 738 locations at last year-end, 642 today, 38 moved out by the committee, 590 before new bookings, lock held — **The year-end file**Last year-end to this one, in filing order: 738 to 642, the committee’s 38 moved out, 590 before new bookings. The lock holds while 23 ties are open.

Audit trail of the PUD reserves review: 40 entries by person and agent, from pad decisions to the chair's opened records and the second signature — **Audit trail**Each pad opened before its decision, each record the chair opened, and both signatures, in a trail nobody can edit, with an export and an evidence pack.

demoSample data, from the working solution.

The reserves committee

Five people touch one PUD reclassification, and two of them sign it

Agents propose. Each person below acts only on their own piece, and nobody checks their own work.

Reserves engineer

Sees: Each pad's wells against their line, with the agents' findings and sources
Signs: Keep or move out, pad by pad, with a reason for each

Drilling planner

Sees: Each plan change as read, with the passage behind it
Signs: Confirms the reading, and puts a pad on a rig

Capital budget analyst

Sees: Which budget line each kept location sits on
Signs: Moves funding, so a keep has money behind it

Chief reserves engineer, committee chair

Sees: The memo and a sample of decisions, which she must open first
Signs: The resolution, or sends a pad back

Corporate controller

Sees: The resolution and what the chair opened
Signs: Second, on every resolution above the set size and every keep past the line

The agents

Seven agents keep the five-year clocks, and none adopts a plan

Each reads, sums or drafts, and hands its work to a named person.

Plan reader

Reads board minutes, rig sheets, budgets and operator letters, and states what moved with the passage.

Never treats a draft as adopted

Runway keeper

Holds a clock on each booked location and re-sorts the runway on any confirmed change.

Never changes a booked number

Tie checker

Ties each location to one plan line and one budget line, and lists what will not tie.

Never invents a tie

Rig finder

Looks for free rig days across the fleet and does the sum.

Never moves a rig
Never changes pad order

Reason drafter

Drafts the memo pad by pad, separating outside causes from internal choices.

Never decides
Never calls a location proved

Promise checker

Compares what was promised with what was drilled, and asks the planner for the basis of the pace.

Never states a forecast as fact

Evidence assembler

Gathers the records that answer a question, with each source cited.

Never sends anything outside

Read only

Four systems that drift apart between year-end reserves reports

Each is read, never written, and a value on any screen links to its page.

Reserves databaseBooked locations, volumes and planned spud dates

Rig schedulingEach rig schedule revision as issued

Budget linesThe approved year and the long-range plan

Document managementBoard papers, memos and operator letters

What reserves engineers ask about proved undeveloped reserves reviews

What are proved undeveloped reserves?

Proved undeveloped reserves are volumes booked on locations not yet drilled. They count as proved only while an adopted development plan drills each one within five years. This solution keeps that clock on every booked location and re-tests it the day a rig plan or budget changes, so the reserves engineer decides with the facts in hand.

What happens to PUD reserves when a rig slips?

Once the drilling planner confirms the new schedule, the runway re-tests each location and names those past the line. Agents look for free rig days and draft a reason for each pad. The reserves engineer keeps or moves out each pad, and the committee signs. Moved-out wells stay in the drilling plan.

What counts as an adopted PUD development plan here?

A confirmed plan document, such as signed board minutes or an issued rig schedule. A draft moves nothing until the planner confirms its reading, and a keep must rest on a rig date he set and a budget line the analyst funded.

Can a location be kept past its five-year line?

Only as the exception, with a written reason for each location and the controller’s signature whatever its size. An internal choice, such as moving money to other work, is flagged as a weak reason. In the sample case none is kept past its line.

How does it track the PUD conversion rate?

A promises screen sets what each year-end plan said would be drilled against what was, year by year, with the reason for each miss. The engineer sees it before any outside reader does.

Does the reserves committee still read the records?

Yes, and the record says which. The chair cannot sign until she has opened the reasons memo and a set number of sampled decisions, and the controller sees what she opened before signing second.

Where does the data stay, and what does it change?

It reads the reserves database, the rig schedules, the budget lines and the document store, and writes to none of them. Rules such as the warning window are proposed by one person and signed by another.

New Ventures, Exploration & Reserves

Bring last year's PUD schedule
and this year's rig plan.

Send them over, and we will set your own locations on the runway, then take one pad to the committee.

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Proved Undeveloped Reserves Review

A rig stand-down in spring can sink proved undeveloped reserves by year-end

The Problem Today

The Solution

What You Get

One rig stand-down and 47 proved undeveloped locations, settled by 10:43

642 locations, 214.0 million barrels, and a rig schedule nobody has read

Rev 12 moves Rig 3 to the next July and takes $91M from next year

Confirming one reading re-tests 642 clocks before he looks away

47 locations past the five-year line, named the day the schedule landed

Rig 4 has 140 days to spare, and Pad 8 needs 139.5

Funded and re-tested, all nine wells sit back inside their line

Four pads move out of proved undeveloped, one opened pad at a time

The chair cannot sign until she opens the memo and four records

Nothing takes effect until the controller signs second

604 locations and 184.9 million barrels, signed 8 weeks before year-end