(Ecofin Agency) - Experts and oil industry players have predicted a decrease in exploration activities as well as in the discovery of oil this year due to the downward trend in the prices of crude oil in the global market.

In 2015, explorers found only a tenth of what they have always been discovering as oil every year since 1960. In 2016, it is estimated to reduce, thereby inciting new uncertainties about the ability to meet future demands.The declining prices of crude oil in the global market have made drilling companies cut down their exploration budgets.

Figures from Wood Mackenzie Ltd. revealed that only 2.7 billion barrels of oil were discovered in 2015, the smallest since 1947 and this year drillers encountered only 736 million barrels of conventional crude as at the end of July.

According to Andrew Latham, Wood Mackenzie’s vice president for global exploration, Worldwide expenses on exploration, from seismic studies to drilling, has been reduced to $40 billion in 2016 compared to the about $100 billion in 2014 and is likely to remain that way till 2018.This is a big concern for the oil and gas industry as the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its outlook has estimated global oil demand to increase from 94.8 million barrels a day in 2016 to 105.3 million barrels in 2026.

This month, 209 wells were drilled compared to the 680 in 2015 and 1,167 in 2014 and a yearly average of 1,500 going back to 1960, Wood Mackenzie added.

“New finds from conventional drilling are at the lowest. There will definitely be a strong impact on oil and gas supply, and especially oil,” Nils-Henrik Bjurstroem, a senior project manager at Rystad Energy AS, said.He added that inventories have been kept afloat by increased output from Russia and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), as they have submerged the market with oil regardless of low prices as they defend market share. “Ten years from now, when the low exploration data being seen now begins to hinder production, it will have a significant potential to push oil prices up,” Bjurstroem said.

Eldar Saetre (photo), Statoil ASA’s Chief Executive Officer, has said that “exploration activity is among the easiest things to regulate, to take up and down. It’s not necessarily the right way to think. We need to keep a long-term perspective and maintain exploration activity through downturns as well, and Statoil has.”

Global benchmark Brent added 0.2% to $49.38 a barrel on Tuesday.

Oil companies will have to inject about $1 trillion every year in order to continue to meet demands, according to Ben Van Beurden, the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.He foresees demand increasing by 1 million to 1.5 million barrels a day, with about 5% of supply lost to natural drops annually.

On Monday, oil dropped amid uncertainties that oil producers will arrive at a decision to freeze output in order to stabilize the market next month in Algiers.Continued low prices signify that when explorers invest in the discovery of new resources, they are taking a smaller amount of risk. They are concentrating on appraisal wells on already-open fields and less on frontier areas, Bjurstroem said.

Overall, the percentage of new oil that the industry has supplied compared to the amount produced has dropped from 30% in 2013 to a ratio of 6% this year when talking about conventional resources, which does not include shale oil and gas, Bjurstroem told Bloomberg.

Anita Fatunji