Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

Dr. Nyland said that another useful type of information is resource
classification. She said that it is important for the Norwegian authorities to
have an overview of the total resources in an area. She said that the purpose
of resource assessments and a resource classification system is obtaining the
most reliable estimate of the resources of a nation, in order to establish
strategies for exploration and production. She said that by having these types
of information, the authorities would benefit by knowing certain critical
factors. For petroleum resources, Dr. Nyland said that these are the total
resources expected, the ratio between oil and gas in an area, the distribution of
resources, and the timing of when these resources would become available.
She said that one of the tasks of NPD is to keep an overall account of the
resources at any time, which forms the basis for planning activities on the
continental shelf. She said that these accounts are reported as part of
Norway’s national budget since petroleum is very important for Norway’s
economy.
She said that a resource classification would differ between the
landowner and the companies. She said that companies would work off the
economic principle to determine what resources can be classified as reserves,
while the nation would work towards moving all resources to the category of
reserves.
Dr. Nyland said that the classification system comprises eleven
different classes, including undiscovered resources, discovered resources and
reserves. She said that under the category undiscovered resources, sub–
categories include unmapped resources, leads and prospects. Dr. Nyland
said that unmapped resources are determined through geostatistical methods,
and those resources that are considered, as leads are better known than
unmapped resources. Dr. Nyland described prospects as mapped resources,
either by a licensee in a licensed area or by NPD in other areas. She said that
when a discovery is made from a prospect, it is included under the category
new discoveries, and depending on the type of oil that it contains, the size of
the deposit, the discovery could be moved into another class. As an example,
she said that a deposit in class six is one whose development is unlikely. She
said that other classes are “may be developed in the long-term”, “discovery in
the early planning phase” and “discovery that is in the late planning phase”.
Dr. Nyland informed participants that the plan for development and
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 813