International Energy Agency: Global annual spending of $540 billion is needed to search for oil.

The International Energy Agency states that as existing oil field production declines at an accelerated pace, by 2050, the world will need to spend around $540 billion annually to search for oil and gas in order to maintain current levels of production. The agency's executive director, Fatih Birol, said that the faster decline in production rate means that the global oil and gas industry "must accelerate its pace in order to remain unchanged." Without investment, the decline in global oil supply would be equivalent to the combined daily production of Norway and Brazil - over 5 million barrels per year.