Peter Gaffney of London-based consultancy firm Gaffney, Cline & Associates told conference delegates that industry and governments must make concerted joint effort to improve exploration and production outcomes.

“We’re currently looking at an average global oil recovery of about 35%,” he said.

“We need to focus more attention on oil exploration and enhanced oil recovery. How many governments are doing that? Certainly not mine.”

Gaffney also warned that governments and petroleum needed to be wary of “sticking their heads in the sand” by failing to seize new opportunities.

“Historically, those [countries] who have petroleum resources are those who haven’t managed their economies all that well,” he said.

“We need to forge new relationships and don’t dismantle pipelines and platforms before seeing if we can get extra barrels out of the ground.”

He also said it was imperative that companies and personnel were offered incentives to stay at home, rather than venture overseas.

At a conference late last year, Gaffney also pointed to tax breaks as a way to encourage exploration.

“If government really wanted to get a lot more oil and gas, they would say any new discoveries made after a certain date would be tax-free. That would bring in a lot more rigs,” he said.