The guidelines for estimating oil reserves set out by the US Securities andExchange Commission (SEC) are outmoded, and out of step with exploration technologyand industry reality, says Deutsche Bank. Hence the SEC creates “an unwarrantedexternal push on the oil companies to under-book reserves, and therefore over-amplifycosts”. JJ Traynor, managing director for global oil and gas research atthe bank, set out these views in a March letter to the regulator.

At the same time, oil giant Shell was