First, we would like to introduce an addition to the editorial team that is responsible for organizing each of the new editions of the Standard Handbook of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering. Stemming from an original publication called Practical Petroleum Engineer’s Handbook first published in the 1940s, the first edition of this handbook was published in 1996 after nearly 8 years of initial preparation by the handbook’s first technical editorWilliam (Bill) Lyons.

High-pressure mineral physics is a field that has shaped our understanding of deep planetary interiors and revealed new material phenomena occurring at extreme conditions. Comprised of 16 chapters written by well-established experts, this book covers recent advances in static and dynamic compression techniques and enhanced diagnostic capabilities, including synchrotron X-ray and neutron diffraction, spectroscopic measurements, in situ X-ray diffraction under dynamic loading, and multigrain crystallography at megabar pressures. Applications range from measuring equations of state, elasticity, and deformation of materials at high pressure, to synthesis and thermochemistry of high-pressure phases, and new molecular compounds and superconductivity under extreme conditions. This book also introduces experimental geochemistry in the laser-heated diamond anvil cell enabled by the focused ion beam technique for sample recovery and quantitative chemical analysis at submicron scale. Each chapter ends with an insightful perspective of future directions, making it an invaluable resource for graduate students and researchers. <...>

Petroleum resource evaluations have been performed by geologists, geophysicists, geochemists, engineers, and statisticians for many decades in an attempt to estimate resource potential in a given region. Because of differences in the geological and statistical methods used for assessment, and the amount and type of data available, resource evaluations often vary. Accounts of various methods have been compiled by Haun (1975), Grenon (1979), Masters (1985), Rice (1986), and Mast et al. (1989). In addition, Lee and Gill (1999) used the Michigan reef play data to evaluate the merits of the log-geometric method of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS); the PETRIMES method developed by the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC); the Arps and Roberts method; Bickel, Nair, and Wang’s nonparametric fi nite population method; Kaufman’s anchored method; and the geo-anchored method of Chen and Sinding–Larson. <...>

The search for a mineral commodity, uranium included, and its eventual production is basically an economic activity. A realistic assessment of the economic viability of a project, whether to fulfill domestic needs or to meet world demand, should therefore be carried out as early and as frequently as possible.