Optimal extraction of petroleum resources

Abstract

Petroleum reservoir behavior at different levels of reservoir pressure is estimated with the actual well data and reservoir characteristics. Using the pressure at the bottom of producing wells as control variables, the time paths of profit maximizing joint production of oil and natural gas under various tax policies are obtained using a dynamic optimization approach.

The results emerge from numerical solution of the maximization of estimated future expected revenues net of variable costs in the presence of taxation. Higher discount rate shifts the production forward in time and prolongs the production plan. The analysis of the state, corporate income taxes and depletion allowance reveals the changes in the revenues to the firm, the state and the federal governments.