World proven oil reserves at end 2006 edge down

By Jane Merriman

LONDON (Reuters) - BP (BP.L) has lowered its estimate of the world's proven oil reserves, for the first time in more than a decade, in its annual Statistical Review of World Energy published on Tuesday.

Global reserves are more than sufficient to meet current production levels for more than 40 years, although accessing the oil is getting tougher due to high exploration and production costs and also to more state control of production, BP said.

World reserves stood at 1.208 trillion barrels at the end of 2006, fractionally lower than 1.209 trillion at end-2005.

The one billion-barrel reduction reflected declines in reserves in Mexico and Norway, partly offset by increases in Russia and Brazil.

Christof Ruhl, deputy chief economist at BP, said the last time the annual reserves figure had fallen in the statistical review was in 1990.

BP's review is widely used as a reference throughout the global energy industry.

Ruhl said the overall 2006 figure could be revised upwards as more data became available. BP's original figure for 2005 had been 1.200 trillion barrels until it was revised upwards after more countries published reserves data.

"We have rolled over the 2005 reserves figures for many countries due to reporting lags," he said, adding that this meant there might ultimately not be a decline for 2006.