Around the end of 2007, crude oil prices were over 100 dollars and the entire world was talking of the prices going past 200 dollars in a year or two. That pushed all the gulf countries and also other oil producers like Brazil and Russia to commit billions of dollars on many new oil exploration and field development projects.
But the crash of crude oil prices in the middle of 2008 forced most of these projects to close down abruptly. Now, with the crude prices moving back to 75 dollars, many of these stalled projects are being revived by the OPEC members and that might help in improving the crude oil supplies in the future years.