MILLER AND LENTS EXPERTISE
Trust The Upstream Experts
Miller and Lents brings an unrivaled depth of expertise to every client and project. Our team has proven experience in providing superior services to the upstream oil and gas industry.
Our Team
Our accomplished staff includes many oil and gas veterans who have decades of experience in the field. They joined M&L from major oil companies like BP, Chevron, and ExxonMobil, as well as a number of large independents. The firm’s interdisciplinary team includes petroleum engineers, petroleum geologists-geophysicists, and economists. Their diverse expertise allows us to provide a multifaceted technical approach bolstered by on-the-ground experience.
Our Services
Our reserves certifications, audits, and independent evaluations are esteemed worldwide by major financial institutions, governmental agencies, and private investors alike. To ensure the highest standards of quality and confidentiality, M&L staff members complete all of our work. The following are our key service areas:
Miller and Lents prepares reserve estimates in accordance with the standards of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Regulation S-X, and the Petroleum Resources Management System (PRMS), which was prepared by the Oil and Gas Reserves Committee of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). Our professionals generate reserve estimates by deterministic or probabilistic methods, including developed and undeveloped reserves, and classification according to Proved, Probable, Possible, Contingent, and Prospective Resource definitions.
We prepare estimates of reserves and producing rates using appropriate combinations of volumetric, material balance, performance trend, and analogous techniques for:
- Oil
- Gas
- Condensate
- Shale gas and shale oil
- Plant products
- Coal seam gas
- Equity determination and unitization
- Sizing and design of facilities
Project design for various recovery methods includes:
- Primary
- Enhanced recovery
- Waterflooding
- Miscible displacement
- Gas cycling
- Thermal
The Miller and Lents team has many decades of combined experience performing the following petroleum engineering analyses:
- Black oil, compositional, and thermal reservoir simulation
- Multi-realization static modeling
- Uncertainty analyses
- Pressure transient analyses
- PVT analyses
- Nodal analyses
- Field development and rehabilitation studies
- Optimization of well spacing and density
- Optimization of producing rates and recoveries
- Evaluation of horizontal drilling projects
- Evaluation of reservoir surveillance programs
- Feasibility studies and management of underground storage projects
- Direct engineering expertise and technical support services
Miller and Lents offers multi-platform economic analyses employing the most appropriate and widely-used economic software programs. The experience of our engineering and technical staff also allows us to work within our clients’ own economic programs. We also provide electronic copies of the economic databases to the client upon completion of the analyses if requested. Our economic analyses include:
- Financial reporting studies as required by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the London Stock Exchange (LSE), and the Alternative Investment Market (AIM)
- Gross and net cash flow projections, before and after income taxes, under Royalty/Tax and Production Sharing Contracts
- Risked and unrisked reserves and economic projections, including decision-tree economics for exploration potential
- Cash flows for evaluation of property trades, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and mergers
- Forecasts of future oil, gas, and plant product prices
- Project financing studies
- Estimates of Fair Market Value by appropriate combinations of accepted appraisal methods
- Undeveloped mineral or leasehold interests
— With identified prospects
— Without identified prospects - Developed or partially developed mineral or leasehold interests
— Producing
— Nonproducing - Working interests, royalty interests, overriding royalty interests, production payments, net profits interests
- Evaluations for purchase or sale of oil and gas interests, including sensitivity studies
- Evaluations of bids
- Estate valuations
The experienced geological staff at Miller and Lents performs a large variety of studies, which include:
- 2D and 3D seismic studies
- Regional or fieldwide structural and stratigraphic studies and subsurface mapping
- Estimates of reservoir volumes
— Deterministic methods
— Probabilistic methods - Geologic studies
— Exploration and exploitation assessment
— Analyses of drilling prospects or drilling programs considering risks
- Field development
— Unitization
— Equity determination
— Underground storage
— Reservoir characterization - Analyses of drilling prospects or drilling programs considering risks
The experienced petrophysical staff at Miller and Lents performs a large variety of studies, including the following:
- Open hole and cased hole log analyses
— Porosity determination
— Hydrocarbon and water saturation
— Net and gross pay determination
— Oil-water, gas-oil, and gas-water contact determination
— Log quality evaluation
— Log calibration
— Lithological studies
- Core analysis studies
— Core-log relationships
— Porosity determination
— Pore size distribution
— Capillary pressure
— Formation characteristics
— Permeability relationships
The Miller and Lents team has extensive experience in performing these important services:
- Expert witness testimony before local, state, or federal regulatory agencies or courts of law or in arbitrations
- Serving as arbiter
We have strong relationships with many legal firms that require expert assistance in drafting:
- Oil, gas, and gas-liquids purchase and sales contracts
- Gas processing contracts
- Loan agreements
- Contracts for the purchase or sale of oil and gas properties
- Operating and joint venture agreements
- Unitization and pooling agreements
- Oil and gas leases
- Exploration and production licenses and agreements
- Vendor-financed development agreements
The Miller and Lents team provides several essential services to royalty owners:
- Review of royalty payments for compliance with leases and contracts
- Evaluation of possible claims for failure to develop or for drainage
- Evaluation of options involving pooling or unitization
“Miller and Lents’ qualifications and professional interaction with our staff have allowed our company to achieve better commercial reserves estimates from year to year.”