Netherland, Sewell & Associates Inc.(Interview)

Publication: Oil and Gas Investor

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Hart Publications, Inc.

Oil and Gas Investor: Describe the key activities of Netherland Sewell & Associates.

Sewell: The firm has been providing petroleum consulting services to a large number of energy clients for 44 years. These clients include independents, majors, national oil companies and financial institutions. About half of our work is domestic and the other half international--and that is by design. Since the mid-1980s, we have built a strong integrated team of reservoir engineers, operations engineers, geologists, geophysicists and petrophysicists, as well as experts in simulation.

This integrated expertise has resulted in NSAI working some of the most technically challenging projects in the world, from the Middle East to Africa, to Asia as well as North America.

OGI: In addition to certifying year-end proved oil and gas reserves for E&P companies, what other projects do you do?

Sewell: When a company gets ready to finance a major project, we may be selected to certify the underlying reserves. Normally, this involves a field study with production projections to ensure that the reserves and deliverability are adequate to support the financial commitment required for the project. Other projects include evaluations of major acquisitions or divestitures, certification of reserves that will support the financing of major new international pipelines, and evaluation of the reserves that will support the financial commitments for new LNG projects.

OGI: You've seen, more than most people, the affect of new technologies and new practices on the reserve numbers for specific fields and companies. Do you think oil production is peaking, as some experts say?

Sewell: We really did run out of cheap domestic oil a long time ago, and U.S. oil production has peaked and is declining OPEC's excess capacity, which exceeded 25% of world production in 1983 and has...

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