Billions of barrels of oil vanish in puff of accounting smoke

``Companies such as Chesapeake Energy pushed the SEC for an accounting change in 2009 that made it easier to claim reserves from wells that would not be drilled for years, but Bloomberg says the chickens will come home to roost in the next few months when billions of barrels of shale drillers' reserves are wiped out... The rule requires the undrilled wells to be profitable and be drilled within five years, but now the time is up, and the companies must soon report 2015 figures - and prices are down, way down.''