LONDON�Investment bank Salomon Smith Barney has predicted the 10 largest oil and gas companies will use their higher profits from oil price increases in 2000 to invest $5 billion more this year on exploration.
It estimated their exploration spending would increase 14% to $40.7 billion. Smith Barney said the companies' investment in exploration rose less than 5% in 2000.
The investment bank said investments in other drilling would climb 20% this year to $20 billion, the largest expansion in 2 decades. It said most of the spending would be in regions outside the US, such as the Caspian Sea and the West African states of Angola and Nigeria.
The bank said the majors' average oil price assumption for 2001 E&P planning was $25/bbl and their longer-range yardstick was $23/bbl.