They make no use of modern technologies such as seismic testing and lateral drilling, for instance.

ECONOMIST: Oil companies

These lateral drilling extensions typically they extend from 2, 000 to 7, 000 feet.

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Technological breakthroughs such as multi-lateral drilling helped defy predictions of decline in Britain's North Sea that have been made since the 1980s: the region is only now peaking.

ECONOMIST: Why the world is not about to run out of oil