The figures published by IHS excluded shale and other onshore reserves in North America.
“The number of discoveries and the size of the discoveries has been declining at quite an alarming rate … you look at supply in 2020-25, it might make the outlook more challenging,” The Financial Times quoted Peter Jackson of IHS as saying.
IHS said that the report is only preliminary and following later revisions, 2014 may prove to be the worst year for oil and gas exploration since 1952.
The shale boom in North America led to an oversupply in oil and triggered a sharp decline in oil prices in 2014. However, Jackson said that shale gas accounts only for about 5 percent of global oil production.
The report highlighted also that exploration budgets are being cut across the industry, so the number of wells drilled is likely to decrease further even if there is an increase in energy demand.
The revelations trigger the need for rising production from the existing sources, including shale gas fields, according to The Financial Times. There are large shale gas reserves in China, Argentina and Russia, but a lot of work has to be done before the fields can be tapped to their maximum capacity.
