Assesment of the resource base efficiency of vertically integrated oil company
Operational efficiency of the resource base of an oil and gas company is characterized by the change in the amount of reserves in time and reflects not only the resources consumption, but also reserves reproduction due to investment in exploration activities, companies’ mergers and acquisitions, the revaluation procedures. In this regard, the relative changes in the reserves amount should correlate with the volume of the resulting net cash effect of the subsoil user. Some index based on the elasticity index, reflecting the efficiency of the resource base use in view of its economic performance is proposed. The calculation of the proposed elasticity of reserves capitalization index (ERC) is performed by dividing the relative rate of change in the proved reserves into the relative rate of change in the net profit. It has been found out that the proposed index makes it possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the resource strategy of oil companies from many sides, as it considers reserves evaluation changes, financial performance and the dynamics of oil prices. It has been revealed that the ERC index of companies with a well-diversified assets and resource efficient strategy varies smoothly over time, without going into a zone of negative values.