oa Exploration in a Low Price Environment

Over the past decade, oil prices have fallen from an all-time high of over $140 per barrel in 2008 to around $55 per barrel today. Not surprisingly, this has resulted in lower corporate earnings and a decrease in upstream capital expenditure by IOCs, with the number of frontier exploration wells drilled at the lowest level in years. At the same time, commercial success rates in global deepwater exploration drilling has also steadily fallen over the past 5 to 10 years, from 20% to less than 5%. It is evident that in the current economic environment, oil and gas companies need to significantly improve exploration performance in order to remain competitive. It is essential that exploration and development decisions are underpinned with a robust understanding of the subsurface. New technology is the life blood of our industry and must be constantly developed to achieve exploration success.