Early figures from research company IHS have shown discoveries of oil and gas reserves dropped to their lowest level in at least two decades in 2014.
The preliminary numbers suggest the volume of oil and gas found was the lowest since around 1995, not including shale and other reserves onshore in North America.
It has been estimated that new finds of oil and gas will have been around 16billion barrels of oil equivalent last year.
The number makes it the fourth year in a row of falling volumes, which is the longest sustained decline since 1950.
Peter Jackson of IHS said:”The number of discoveries and the size of discoveries has been declining at quite an alarming rate. When you look at supply in 2020-25, it might make the outlook more challenging.”
Exploration activity in 2014 showed only minor impact from the fall in oil prices in the latter part of the year.
The last time the oil and gas discoveries were around the same level as 2014, was the mid-1990s, when exploration activity had been hit by low oil prices.
In 2014, the number of exploration and appraisal wells drilled was only 1% lower than the year before worldwide.
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