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Resources and Proved ReservesRESOURCE BASE One of ExxonMobil's core strengths is the size and quality of its total inventory of discovered oil and gas resources. This discovered resource base of 68.9 billion oil-equivalent barrels (31 percent proved) has grown by 28 percent or 15.2 billion oil-equivalent barrels during the last 10 years. Each year, the resource base is updated to add new discoveries, resource acquisitions, and changes in estimates of existing field resources. ExxonMobil refers to new discoveries and acquisitions of discovered, but undeveloped, resources as new field resource additions. Adjustments to existing field resources reflect changed recovery expectations resulting from new technologies and any other revisions (positive or negative) resulting from continued field drilling and evaluation. The company includes only those resources it believes will likely be commercial. During the update process, volumes produced or sold during the year are removed from the total resource base. 
Resources are classified broadly as being either proved or non-proved. Non-proved resources are typically converted to proved reserves once geological and commercial confidence supports a development decision. PROVED RESERVES At year-end 1999, the resource base included 21.3 billion oil-equivalent barrels of proved oil and gas reserves. ExxonMobil added 1.7 billion oil-equivalent barrels to proved reserves in 1999, while producing 1.6 billion oil-equivalent barrels, a 106-percent replacement. For six consecutive years, the company's reserves replacement rate has exceeded 100 percent. Over the last three years, reserves have been added at a replacement cost of just over $4 per oil-equivalent barrel. Over the last ten years, the company has added 17.5 billion oil-equivalent barrels to proved reserves, replacing 110 percent of its production. All figures exclude asset sales. ExxonMobil has consistently made upward revisions to estimates of proved reserves in existing fields. Averaging 706 million oil-equivalent barrels per year over the last three years, these revisions result from the application of new technology and effective reservoir management. In 1999, upward revisions were made at such fields as Tengiz in Kazakhstan, Grane in Norway, and LaBarge, South Belridge, and Sacate in the United States. Development drilling within existing productive fields proved-up 420 million oil-equivalent barrels of reserves additions in 1999 at a cost of less than $4 per oil-equivalent barrel. The development of new fields discovered through exploration and extensions of existing fields has added, on average over the last three years, nearly 1.2 billion oil-equivalent barrels per year to proved reserves. These include 1999 proved additions in Canada, Norway, Angola, Nigeria, and the United States. With 21.3 billion oil-equivalent barrels of proved oil and gas reserves, ExxonMobil's reserve life at current production rates is over 13 years — one of the longest in the industry.
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