Even if you include the costly effects of Hugo Chavez's shenanigans, ExxonMobil
For the year, the company managed to replace its reserves by 132%, excluding Hugo's having helped himself to its hard-earned treasures in his country. If you take account of that country's expropriation of about half a billion oil-equivalent barrels of the company's reserves last spring, Exxon replaced 101% of its production from new developments and reassessments of previous plays. During the past decade, the company has averaged a 112% reserve replacement ratio.
It also turns out that ConocoPhillips
At another extreme, Hess
With oil and gas being found in progressively more remote locations and with discoveries calling into play steadily more technological sophistication, reserve replacement metrics are hardly insignificant for producers. For my money, Exxon's replacement results could have been higher, but generally they enhance my belief that the company represents an appropriate way to approach the increasingly important energy sector.
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