By Anna Driver
HOUSTON, March 9 (Reuters) - A rebound in oil prices has encouraged oil and gas companies to take more risks in their quest for reserves, drilling deeper in more remote waters or finding new sources of energy, top executives said on Tuesday.
After the trauma of oil's 2008 collapse and tentative recovery last year, oil executives at the CERAWeek annual conference brimmed with confidence in the future of oil, particularly in the wake of high-profile successes in the ultradeep waters in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and offshore Brazil.
Crude oil prices are trading around $80 per barrel, well up from the late 2008 lows near $30 a barrel, which has prompted more energy companies to again start looking at ways to grow output after a year where many projects were shelved because of the recession.
Barriers to offshore exploration like the earth's salt layer have been torn down by advances in seismic technology and drilling and companies are looking for oil in places they have never been.
BP's new frontier is in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, where it struck a potentially billion-plus barrel field last year with the industry's deepest well ever -- Tiber -- at 35,050 feet (1,300 meters) -- in over 4,000 feet of water.
'We are looking for oil and gas in evermore testing conditions,' said Andy Inglis, chief executive, exploration and production at BP.
Saudi Aramco, state firm of the world's top oil exporter and guardian of the world's largest reserves, plans to drill 'some very deep offshore wells' for the first time in the Red Sea in 2012, CEO Khalid Al-Falih told the conference.
'We hope to find both oil and gas,' he said.
That campaign is part of Aramco's pledge to increase upstream spending by nearly 50 percent from the previous period to $90 billion over the next five years, with a growing share spent on natural gas, an increase that Falih urged other companies to emulate to ensure the world's needs are met. .
ConocoPhillips, the third largest U.S oil company, is looking to produce methane hydrates, which had never been commercially produced, from beneath the ocean floor in the Arctic.
'It may even be possible to liberate the methane by pumping carbon dioxide into the formations,' Conoco CEO Jim Mulva told CERAWEEK. That, he said, would be a dual energy and carbon storage solution.
(Reporting by Anna Driver in Houston; Editing by Marguerita Choy) Keywords: CERAWEEK OIL/PROJECTS (anna.driver@thomsonreuters.com; 1 713 210 8509; Reuters Messaging: anna.driver.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
HOUSTON, March 9 (Reuters) - A rebound in oil prices has encouraged oil and gas companies to take more risks in their quest for reserves, drilling deeper in more remote waters or finding new sources of energy, top executives said on Tuesday.
After the trauma of oil's 2008 collapse and tentative recovery last year, oil executives at the CERAWeek annual conference brimmed with confidence in the future of oil, particularly in the wake of high-profile successes in the ultradeep waters in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and offshore Brazil.
Crude oil prices are trading around $80 per barrel, well up from the late 2008 lows near $30 a barrel, which has prompted more energy companies to again start looking at ways to grow output after a year where many projects were shelved because of the recession.
Barriers to offshore exploration like the earth's salt layer have been torn down by advances in seismic technology and drilling and companies are looking for oil in places they have never been.
BP's new frontier is in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, where it struck a potentially billion-plus barrel field last year with the industry's deepest well ever -- Tiber -- at 35,050 feet (1,300 meters) -- in over 4,000 feet of water.
'We are looking for oil and gas in evermore testing conditions,' said Andy Inglis, chief executive, exploration and production at BP.
Saudi Aramco, state firm of the world's top oil exporter and guardian of the world's largest reserves, plans to drill 'some very deep offshore wells' for the first time in the Red Sea in 2012, CEO Khalid Al-Falih told the conference.
'We hope to find both oil and gas,' he said.
That campaign is part of Aramco's pledge to increase upstream spending by nearly 50 percent from the previous period to $90 billion over the next five years, with a growing share spent on natural gas, an increase that Falih urged other companies to emulate to ensure the world's needs are met. .
ConocoPhillips, the third largest U.S oil company, is looking to produce methane hydrates, which had never been commercially produced, from beneath the ocean floor in the Arctic.
'It may even be possible to liberate the methane by pumping carbon dioxide into the formations,' Conoco CEO Jim Mulva told CERAWEEK. That, he said, would be a dual energy and carbon storage solution.
(Reporting by Anna Driver in Houston; Editing by Marguerita Choy) Keywords: CERAWEEK OIL/PROJECTS (anna.driver@thomsonreuters.com; 1 713 210 8509; Reuters Messaging: anna.driver.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.