Is a number of ';oil proved reserves'; in some nation true ??

is a number of ';oil proved reserves'; in some nation true ??


because in my coutry -oman- they had 9.7 billion barrels and they product 1640000 b/d along time ago and it still haven't finish eat as this number of production it have to finish in few years but its producting 35 years and untill present???Is a number of ';oil proved reserves'; in some nation true ??
I am no expert on Oman, but proven reserves is usually only a fraction of the total amount of oil potentially available in a country.





When an oil deposit is discovered, the amount of oil in the deposit can only be known with some certainty after many production wells are drilled. These are the ones that actually bring oil out of the underground deposit. Tests on these wells will determine the amount of ';proven'; reserves in this deposit.





However, there may be other deposits that have not yet been discovered. Geologists try to estimate the amount of undiscovered reserves, but as you can imagine, this estimate is highly uncertain.





Also new production techniques can increase the amount of oil available from an oil field that has been producing for some years. This increases the amount of proven reserves. Producing oil is not like sucking coke out of a can. A lot of effort is required to make the underground rocks release the oil that they contain. Usually, a lot of oil is left in the rocks because there is no economical way of taking it out.





Thus it is quite possible that over some period, the amount of production can greatly exceed the amount of proven reserves at the start of the period.