McKelvey Box helps to visualise mineral resources uncertainty

  • McKelvey’s Box is a simple device/diagram for visualizing categories of oil and mineral reserves and resources that shows level of uncertainty and risk

    • The original McKelvey box (with SPE-AAPG-WPC terminology) shows basic terminology with simple uncertainty grouping
      • McKelvey Box bgcolor
    • The updated/modern (updated by a joint working group of the SPE, AAPG and WPC), reoqrganized and subdivided by probabilistic uncertainties (i.e. 1P, 2P, 3P)
      • bgcolor

  • It was developed to avoid ambiguity in communication (in reporting of natural resources) and contains the following basic idea

    • only discovered, commercially-viable deposits get to be called Reserves.
    • Discovered but sub-commercial (with today's technology and pricing) are contingent resources.
    • Potentially producible and viable deposits that we've not yet found are called prospective resources. These are important distinctions, especially if you are a public company or a government.

References

Metadata

  • topic:: 00 Petroleum Engineering00 Petroleum Engineering
    #MOC / notes on petroleum and reservoir engineering (PE/RE) including resources classification
  • updated:: 2022-06-22 Private or Broken Links
    The page you're looking for is either not available or private!
  • reviewed:: 2022-06-22 Private or Broken Links
    The page you're looking for is either not available or private!
  • #LiteratureNote