> US expro in particular has collapsed.
The point is: why bother doing more exploration for oil that we know is out there when we haven't fully developed (at this price level) the sources we have today? There's more oil known than we can get out of the ground anytime soon at current prices and technology. There simply is no need to do more exploration at this time. In fact, quite to the contrary, there's good reason *not* to go looking for it; as you say, the prices are low because of market conditions. If the Saudi household wasn't broke, perhaps we'd see higher prices (and lower supplies). As it is, pumping more (and depressing prices) is all they have left to do.
There are sources of oil that can be tapped at each price level all the way up to $200/bbl. Continuing R&D efforts, therefore, are concentrated on making the current process more efficient, rather than for looking for new fields.
/jordan