Gazprom press release says that the December 31, 2003 assessment of reserves of the Gazprom group's 19 fields (over 93 percent of the hydrocarbons total) has been prepared by the American company De Golier&McNoton.
De Golier&McNoton assesses the Gazprom group's proved and probable reserves of natural gas at 18.5 trillion cubic metres, gas condensate, oil and natural gas liquids at 685.2 million tonnes.
"The international audit results have revealed actually full coincidence of assessments of the initial geological reserves made by the Gazprom auditor and specialists. In addition, throughout the last five years the tendency towards a sustained growth of the current cost of the Gazprom raw materials base has been preserving, which is a positive factor for the company's increasing capitalisation", the press release reads.
The Gazprom board of directors took a decision to go on with the annual independent assessment of hydrocarbons reserves according to the international standards, development of the management system of the company's raw materials base. Before 2004 end, the reserves of hydrocarbons of the Vyngayakhinski fields and oil fringes of the Orenburg field will be estimated.
The Russian reserves classification system substantially differs from the international standards, the press release says. It takes into account only geological and industrial indicators, while according to the international standards reserves are calculated over the period of profitable development.
In line with the Russian classification, as of December 31, 2003 the reserves of the Gazprom group's ABC1 natural gas stood at 28 trillion cubic metres, gas condensate 1,279.8 million tonnes, oil 569.1 million tonnes.
