Question

You see in a reserve table for a country that it has 1.3 billion, 2.5 billion, and 4.4 billion in reserves, but the types of reserves are unlabeled. Which estimate is most likely to represent proven reserves?

	1.3 billion
		2.5 billion
		4.4 billion

Answer 1

Proven reserves of a country are such reserves of petroleum or other natural resources when there is at least 90% confidence that the reserve could be recovered or exploited for economic benefits.

According to the principle of conservative estimate, the most conservative amount of reserve would be most likely to represent proven reserves.

As we know, the most conservative estimate is 1.3 billion, therefore, we can say that the 1.3 billion is most likely to represent proven reserves.