Abstract
The 74th step of "100 Concrete Step of Nation Plan" initiated by the first president of the Republic of Kazakhstan (RoK) Nursultan Nazarbayev states that Kazakhstani reserves reporting system must be changed to the international standards. One of them actively proposed is the SPE-PRMS. Therefore, the main goal of the paper is to show challenges of the transition, discuss possible problems, their solution and, eventually, advantages for the companies.
In the paper the main aspects of the current State Committee of Reserves (SCR) system or well-known as GKZ system inherited from the Soviet system and used in Kazakhstan are reported. Especially, we try to highlight the reserves categories of A, B, C1 and C2 and their impact on further field development in details. Also SPE-PRMS and SEC rules are shown in terms of differences and similarities with the current system. Importantly, authors demonstrate how the SPE-PRMS standards are wide-spread around the globe. Finally, details of planned shift, some recommendations and simplification of reporting process are exhibited.
As the result of the study the following points are investigated. Firstly, what will be with reports just recently approved by the SCR. Especially, for the big fields whose preparation takes up to several years. Secondly, what the frequency is for the reporting. Thirdly, whether the reports will be handled through several approval stages or just submitted. Moreover, how close to SPE-PRMS the new system should be adopted taking into account Kazahstani realities and if the reports should be composed in English along with Russian, since the main purpose of the transition is to be clear and transparent for the foreign investors. Otherwise, unfamiliar language and big deviation from the well-known standards may ruin the efforts. Despite the complexity of these issues the benefits of the new system are obvious and there are several reasons. The main advantage is that the SPE-PRMS is all about economically recoverable reserves without any ties with fixed recovery factor. In addition, report is done in short time and less volume. Finally, if the norm of the report's submission without going to tedious approval process is accepted, that will ease work of the subsoil users’ because it accelerates further preparation of field development project.
The study is done due to recent changes of the RoK subsoil usage regulations, where the requirement for reserves reporting system's transition to the new international standards is mentioned. However, the issue is not much highlighted in technical publications from the operating companies’ point of view. Thus, having experience with GKZ, SPE-PRMS and SEC systems the authors take this opportunity to show challenges and benefits of the decision.