Amid the unpredictable nature of the economy and geopolitics, among many other factors, the value of oil reserves fluctuates constantly. This situation has brought to the forefront the necessity for oil and gas companies to re-evaluate asset forecasts and reconciling differences has become a very important challenge for understanding the changing nature of their asset base.

Whether this is through using legacy software, automated scripts through multiple databases, or manually through a single database, companies are finding their current methods of reconciling reserves in response to the recent economic downturn to be error-prone. Additionally, these approaches take too long to produce answers that help solve critical business problems.

When you’re accountable to regulatory agencies, shareholders, and other third parties, these inefficient and mistaken-laden reconciliation processes simply won’t do. So, how can you avoid these pitfalls? How does your company ensure that data is accurate, while at the same time not dominating the attention and energy of your reserves and operations teams?

To find out, we need to take a critical look at what current reconciliation processes are available and determine which method is best for your company. 

Creating Modern Reconciliation Processes with PRMS Software

Method 1: Multiple Databases using Automated Scripts

Oil and gas reserves companies understand that time spent reconciling is money spent reconciling. That’s why professionals are resorting to automated means through multiple databases to reduce time spent in the process. While this is a fast approach to reconciling your data, there are some major setbacks:

• It takes a big effort to coordinate all of the moving parts, including a variety of databases and a ton of scripts.
• It’s a complicated process, which means it’s prone to mistakes.
• Fixing data mistakes or making data updates requires a huge effort to ensure that all of the databases used are up to date.
• Custom-built scripts require intricate development and maintenance.
• It generates duplicated and fragmented data due to the use of multiple databases.

Method 2: Single Database with Manual Entry

Another well-known reconciliation process is the use of a single database with manual entry. Like any manual process, this method is time-consuming with a high chance of error. Additionally,

• You have limited capabilities because you can only run batches for one change-type at a time.
• You experience change-type restrictions and order-of-operations issues.
• You have less granularity than automated processes can yield.
• It's not easy to run different scenarios on reconciliation that is based on order of operation.

Method 3: Automated Reconciliation

What if you could quickly reconcile your data as often as you needed to with the speed of an automated process and the meticulous detail of a manual procedure, yet with none of the traditional errors from either one? The right modern PRMS software solution can do all of that!

By combining trusted processes together with new software capabilities, this newest method enables you to perform rapid, error-free reconciliation by performing automated processes within a single database. 

By streamlining and automating scripts, you can quickly capture, validate, match, and reconcile all of your data in a single database. Discover how you can save time and money by maintaining compliance with hyper-accurate reconciliation reports.

To see how this process works, check out Omnira’s recent Automated Reserves Reconciliation webinar or download our free Reserve Reconciliation eBook where we’ll show you just how easy it is to migrate into a modern software for automatically reconciling your data.