Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers

The Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers is a non-profit professional organization with the objectives to promote the profession of petroleum estimate engineering, to foster the spirit of scientific research among its Members, and to disseminate facts relating to petroleum evaluation engineering among its Members and the public.

The professional activities of SPEE members are steered by by-laws that require the highest ethical standards and that provide for a committee to review objections filed against members. Principles of acceptable evaluation engineering practice address the relationships of members with the unrestricted, with employers, with clients, with other members, and with SPEE.

The standardization of oil and gas reserve descriptions has been a principle goal of SPEE throughout its history. In 1987, SPEE, in cooperation with other trade groups, formulated and published definitions believed suitable for use throughout the oil and gas industry. These definitions were subsequently disseminated jointly by SPEE and by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). Inclusive guidelines addressing the application of these definitions were then published by SPEE in December 1988 as Monograph.

Each year since 1982, SPEE has surveyed its members and also other experts to obtain data regarding convinced evaluation parameters in current use throughout the oil and gas industry. A statistical analysis of the results of this survey is circulated and a copy is made available to non-members for a modest fee. This annual survey is considered to be a valuable support to the profession of petroleum evaluation engineering because it provides a comparison basis for the parameters being used by any individual assessor. Typical parameters included in the survey are: 10 year forecast of domestic oil and gas prices; 10 year forecast of operating cost and drilling cost escalation rates; primary present worth factor utilized in evaluations; minimum expected rate of return for investments; and risk adjustment factors applied to specific reserve classifications and categories. The annual survey also includes a comparison of all previous surveys.

SPEE assists in the continuing education of its member through periodic technical meetings held by each local Chapter, along the Annual Meeting, and also by propagating reports generated by the efforts of special committees such as the most recent report concerning severance taxes, “Summary of Oil & Gas Production Taxes.