Oil Property Valuation

Oil Property Valuation By PAUL PAINE. PREFACE: Published accounts of the valuation of oil properties have been con cerned chiefly with the important element of the oil and gas contents of lands. Less attention has been given to those other influences which affect the value of the oil and gas, to the various valuation methods appropriate to different circumstances, and to the forms in which oil properties occur. The aim here is to help close that gap, especially for the younger engineers, with a review of the meaning and scope of valuation in the oil business, the factors which enter a valuation, and the methods of applying these. Questions which arise in valuation practice and the avenues of solution are discussed rather than efforts, in these days of rapid changes, to provide specific answers and detailed lists of equip ment costs. And thanks should be recorded here to H. K. Armstrong, Ernest K. Parks, and Robert Moore, who have done much to improve the original manuscript of this book. PAUL PAINE LOS ANGELES, CALIF. August, 1942 Contents include: CHAPTER I: THE SCOPE OF VALUATION Introduction Meaning of value Purpose The specific date Classes of valuations Valuation methods Relation of the appraiser to his employer. CHAPTER II PROPERTIES 13 Classes Unproved lands Proved lands Forms of ownership Fee Mineral rights Surface rights The lease The prospecting permit Contingent payment Carried in terest Fractional interest Drilling contract Unit project Royalty interest Land descriptions Listing of proper ties Definitions. CHAPTER III UNPROVED LANDS 44 Measures of value The lease Selection rights The toplease The salt dome Deep sand prospects Royalty. CHAPTER IV OIL AND GAS RESERVES 65 Definitions Depletion Occurrence of oil and gas The reservoir Reservoir measurements Estimates Volumetric method Decline curve method Irregularities in curves Additional oil recoveries The salt dome Natural gas Saturation method Pressure decline method Casinghead gas Gas distillate Well spacing. viii CONTENTS CHAPTER V PAGE ELEMENTS IN A VALUATION 98 The oil Marketing The gas Casinghead gas and natural gasoline Costs for acquisition, development, opera tions, taxes, and overhead Present worth Unit projects Marginal properties. CHAPTER VI VALUATION METHODS 138 The engineering or analytical method The payout The daily barrel The well as a unit The barrel in the ground For the lender The royalty Fair market value. CHAPTER VII THE EXAMINATION AND REPORT 174 The data Examination Accounting The balance sheet Profit and loss statement The report Contents Check lists Reports for regulatory bodies. INDEX 197. CHAPTER I: THE SCOPE OF VALUATION. The petroleum industry is the one circus bigger inside the canvas than on the posters. Sketches in Crude Oil, by JOHN J. McLAURiN The principal factors in the valuation of a producing oil property are the estimates of 1 the recoverable oil 2 the profits to be ob tained from the extraction of this oil 3 the resulting values under various conditions. The value of nonproducing acreage is more simply ascertained. This work is concerned with these topics, with less emphasis on the subject of estimating the oil reserves. Most of the recorded study relating to the subject has been directed toward the estimation of the recoverable oil and gas, called the oil and gas reserves, and has had its inception in tax situations and the accom panying accounting matters. The derivation of the worth of these reserves, expressed in dollars, has received less attention. However, the dollar values of oil properties have been of concern to the leaders in the industry since its beginning. Before Colonel Drake put down the first successful well that was drilled for oil in the United States, he prevailed upon the landowners to reduce the royalty rate to one-third of that stipulated originally in the lease...