**1. Introduction**

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When human societies became aware that an increasing proportion of their power, heat and light were produced from fossil fuels and that fossil fuels were an exhaustible resource, there was no way back to the pre-industrial world. Drawing on the history and methodologies of estimating petroleum reserves this chapter explains how geologists, politicians, engineers, managers and the public at large have come to perceive the finite nature of energy sources.

On the technical side, the need to assess petroleum reserves fostered scientific advances in the domain of the stratigraphic study of rock reservoirs, in terms of the geological understanding of petroleum origins and formation, in the domain of statistical forecasting based on data from producing wells as well as in geophysical measurements. However, the path from measurement technique capacities towards a set of final aggregate figures proved anything but linear. From the outset, the estimation of reserves took place within the framework of a web of political stances, business and social interests and economic organizational realities. What sway did these forces hold over the course of events? What came to determine the core choices about the classification of reserves and the assessments of undiscovered petroleum? Furthermore, how relevant did the contribution of science and technology prove? To answer these questions the ensuing pages sketch the state of the art in geological surveying at the dawn of the twentieth century before examining the technology available for oil discovery and closing with a comparative view of the institutional scenario prevailing over the classification of oil reserves.
