As of December 31, 2009, 73% of the company’s proved reserves consisted of oil and 27% of gas. Of the total proved reserves, approximately 64% was in the US and 36% were located in international locations. Approximately 23% of the proved reserves were proved undeveloped and 77% were proved developed.
Ray Irani, chairman and CEO of Occidental Petroleum, said: “We are pleased to have replaced 206% of our 2009 production largely through improved recovery and extensions and discoveries. Over the last three years, we replaced 160% of our production. Our finding and development costs in 2009 were $7.90 per BOE. For the last three-year period, our finding and development costs averaged about $15.10 per barrel.”
Of the total reserve changes, improved recovery represented 173 million BOE of proved reserves additions, mainly in California, Permian and Oman, through the Mukhaizna project.
Extensions and discoveries added another 92 million BOE of reserves, mainly in the Kern county discovery area, with smaller additions internationally. The company added another 160 million BOE through purchases of proved reserves largely consisting of several domestic acquisitions in California and New Mexico and reflecting the Bahrain field redevelopment project.
Revisions of previous estimates provided a net 58 million BOE additions to reserves. The additions included a net positive effect from production sharing contracts in the Middle East/North Africa. Domestic positive oil price-related revisions were more than offset by negative gas price-related revisions, and other changes in the US and Argentina.
Occidental Petroleum’s costs incurred for exploration and development activities and acquisitions were $3.8bn. The acquisition costs were primarily domestic, mainly in California and New Mexico.
For the three-year period 2007 through 2009, the company’s proved reserve additions totaled 1.1 billion BOE, and total production equaled 663 million BOE, for a reserve replacement ratio of 160%. Total costs incurred during this three-year period were $16bn.
