How Good are CVN's Prospects, page-3

mean recoverable just means the average or the expectation case, recoverable how much oil in the ground you can get out (usually 25% to 30% if oil)

in simple terms, there’s a whole lot of small oil fields and a few big ones, which brings up the average, so the average size is more than small

in more technical high school maths terms think of the oil field like a skinny long trunk.
length is “normally distributed” like a bell curve
height and width are also “normally distributed” like a bell curve.
you multiply them together with a formula to get the cubic metres in volume.

multiplying (3) normal distributions means that the volume result is “lognormally distributed”

lognormal distribution means many small field volumes and a few larger and large ones at the upside tail.

p.s. this also applies to other things that are volume related, multiplying length by girth, like an elephant’s trunk, or similar appendages.

cant think of a specific example, but it seems most appendages are small but there are a few very large ones which brings the average up —- so Stats theory tells us, but o haven’t had much empirical evidence to go on