India’s Business Standard reports that the Indian Petroleum Ministry is preparing the stricter guidelines, which are likely to be issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

The ministry is planning to ask companies to benchmark estimates to a classification defined either through new legislation or through government notification.

Companies will be allowed to declare proved estimates only of hydrocarbons in place, and may be asked to inform the government of new discoveries at least seven days before making any public announcements.

Firms filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission have to disclose only proved reserves in terms of either actual production or conclusive formation tests.

But in India, estimates will be considered “proved” if the structure, spread, volume and reservoir characteristics are well defined by adequate well control and testing.

Shell last month said it was reducing its proved petroleum reserves by 1.4 billion barrels — substantially more than the 900 million barrels expected by analysts.