T
hese are challenging times in the oil and gas industry. It seems as though
almost overnight things have gone from a stable oil price of US$100/bbl,
to a wobblier less than US$50/bbl. The industry has reacted to this with
substantial redundancies, a huge reduction in exploration and a general feeling of
discomfort across the board.
In addition, the industry is looking at exploration in more difficult territories
– harder to reach, remote and hostile environments where subsurface data is
more expensive to acquire, and areas that are environmentally sensitive. Even
when the oil price stabilises to a price where companies are able to tentatively
widen their exploration focus, these are the areas that are going to provide
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