Washington – After a year of record prices for oil and natural gas, the world’s energy companies are stepping up spending on exploration and production. Flush with cash, they’ll spend 2006 hunting for oil and opportunities to expand their businesses.
That’s good news for consumers. It means oil companies, private and state-owned, are hunting for supplies to replace what’s consumed and to meet surging global demand for oil and natural gas.
Global oil consumption is forecast to grow from 82 million barrels per day now to 111 million barrels per day over the next 20 years, so much more fuel must be found simply to keep prices from rising drastically.
The stepped-up exploration is sure to increase America’s dependency on energy imports. The hunt for gas and oil is happening in faraway places such as Russia’s arctic north, central Australia and volatile African countries such as Sudan, Gabon and Nigeria.
Nonconventional energy sources being tapped for development include natural-gas drilling in Colorado and Wyoming, and oil-shale deposits in the Rocky Mountain states.
