Thanks Dave for this post, this is an outstanding work!

Regarding the Hubbert linearization on Russia, I don't think this technique is appropriate simply because production has been constrained and the observed profile will be bimodal. Curve fitting is a maximum likelihood approach where there is no prior on the curve parameters and will produce suboptimal results when the residuals are non gaussian.  

If we look at the different reserves estimates you are giving, we can design a rough triangular prior probability density function for the URR based on the different fractiles (F00= 127 + 60, F50= 127 + 113, F100= 127 + 180):

Using a Bayesian filtering technique (or sequential Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC)) we can use the above prior to constrain the solution to fit in a valid subspace of solutions. I can't give all the details of this approach here, but the details can be found on my blog. The predicted production from this algorithm (called SBM-PF) is given on the figure below:

You can also look at the URR values derived from the Bayesian filtering:

The F95 value is 239 Gb (i.e. 95% of chance to have an URR > 239 Gb).

If we compare this Bayesian approach with the standard Hubbert linearization, we can see how the standard Hubbert linearization could potentially underestimate the URR:

Regarding the Hubbert linearization on Russia, I don't think this technique is appropriate simply because production has been constrained and the observed profile will be bimodal.

Thanks, I was trying quite extensively to defend exactly the same point with my discussions about Russia with westtexas. Restrictiong the production for whatever reason skews the curve in a way that it seems that it has peaked and gives lower URR. Removing the production constraints resembles very much the discovery of a new field. After this has happened the curve heads to a secondary peak after which already you are able to extrapolate the true URR.

So, is the URR of the above Russian production chart 240 Gb, that is, area under this curve being 240 ? I looked over at your blog, and it looks like you plotted a curve there based on maybe 200 Gb, but then fattened the production curve to about a 240 URR estimate for the curve you show here. I'm looking at the Russian situation, too; and I think a lot of projecting their future flow rates has to do with what all happened during the Soviet era. I may do a post on this, but I want to know what the best estimate of Russian URR currently is. Is the above chart for just Russia or all of the FSU ?