As hydrocarbons run short, rising prices tend to spur both innovation and new, more expensive exploration activity.
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Halliburton also continued to maintain a positive outlook for exploration activity in North America despite the recent declines in oil prices and turbulence in international markets.
The higher utilization could be a result of a resurgence in deepwater activity in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, where the government recently sold leases for new exploration activity.
The recent discoveries by Statoil in the Barents Sea have fueled new interest in exploration activity in the Arctic regions of Norway, leading to record levels of drilling in 2011 with 4 additional wells planned this year and 7 more in 2012.
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It is no wonder that BP are acting out this exercise in a public way as US lawmakers threatened to block any application BP would make to be party to drilling and exploration activity involving new US offshore leases because of its past safety record.
In contrast to Brazil, where most exploration activity is dominated by the NOC (National Oil Company) Petrobraz, deepwater spending in West African countries such as Angolia, Nigeria and Ghana is dominated by oil majors such as BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Shell.
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While exploration and production activity in Iraq will definitely impact the top line of oil services firms, managing costs of operations will be a major headache for the companies.
Our forecast for the increase in rig count for the Middle East and Asia region takes into account the major expansion in the exploration and production activity in Iraq over the next few years.
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Halliburton is well positioned to benefit from the burst in exploration and production activity that is expected as oil prices continue to climb higher against the backdrop of strong demand recovery and the political upheaval in the Middle East.
Louisiana loses the equivalent of a football field worth of wetlands every hour, and 40 to 60 percent of that loss is attributed to oil and gas activity, including exploration and dredging of pipeline canals.
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