Classification of petroleum resources: State of the art and proposals

Modern classification of petroleum resources should reflect the reliability of assessment, recoverability, and economic significance of hydrocarbon ac cumulations of various exploration classes. It should serve as a guide for geological and economical analyses and assessment of objects of various ran ks: fields, deposits, areas, promising zones and regions, administrative un its of the Russian Federation, etc. In this context, the authors consider t he "Classification of predicted geological resources of oil and combustible gas" valid in Russia since 1983 and various projects of geological and eco nomical classification of hydrocarbon resources. The classification adopted in Russia and the corresponding system for takin g into account petroleum resources are not sufficient for their classificat ion by the degree of prospecting (substantiation), preparation for exploita tion, recoverability, and other indices. The absence of economical grounds for subdivision of resources by economic significance is the main drawback of the existing system. Many Russian scientists dealing with classification of hydrocarbon resource s also omitted the economic aspect of the problem, Nevertheless, classifica tion projects attaching much importance to economical characterization of r esources have appeared in the recent 10-15 years. In the present article, a ttention is focused on these projects, because they best fit the need for d eveloping the fuel and energy production in modern situation. The authors propose their own version of geological and economical classifi cation of petroleum resources, including all reasonable considerations pres ent in the classification valid in Russia and in classifications proposed b y other experts.