From the Unocal 2Q earnings announcement.

In the past, Unocal has had a goal to provide investors with a forecast amount for future production volumes that had an equal likelihood of being below or above the actual amounts. Because recent actual production levels have often fallen below Unocal’s estimates, the company has decided to adopt a new approach for its production forecasts.

Previous production estimates have been affected by factors such as different than anticipated declines, project start-up timing, and performance of new projects.

Beginning with today’s outlook, Unocal will now offer production forecasts that the company expects will be exceeded by actual production.

And then Unocal promptly dropped its estimate by 6% to 400,000 boe per day. (BOE factors oil and gas.) Crude production actually dropped 7.4% 2Q to 2Q.