Although there is no evidence of industry-wide problems with accounting for oil and gas reserves, disclosure should be improved says ratings agency Standard & Poor’s.

“There is no indication, at this stage, that uncertainties about reserves or excessive reserves booking to the tune of Shell’s (which ended up reducing by 23% its proven year-end 2002 reserves) are an industry-wide phenomenon,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Eric Tanguy.

Nevertheless, the rating agency says that a number of lessons can be drawn from recent events affecting Shell and other major upstream players. “Among global integrated companies, the level of public disclosure on reserves has not improved for quite some time, since most companies deliberately limit disclosure to SEC requirements, which have undergone limited changes over the past two decades. Simple changes in disclosures would no doubt contribute to greater transparency,” added Tanguy.

In addition to more frequent use of external petroleum engineers, detailed explanations about year-to-year revisions, aging tables for undeveloped reserves, per-country or even better per-field breakdown of proven reserves, information about probable and possible reserves would all be welcome additions to current disclosure requirements, S&P advised.