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WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. oil and natural gas proved reserves fell in 2015 because of lower prices, said the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.
The U.S. crude oil spot prices declined nearly 50 percent from 94.55 U.S. dollars per barrel in 2014 to 50 dollars in 2015, while the natural gas spot price fell more than 40 percent from 4.55 dollars per million Btu in 2014 to 2.62 dollars per million Btu in 2015, said the EIA.
These price reductions led to reduced drilling activity and lower reported proved reserves across a broad range of U.S. producers in 2015, it said.
Proved reserves are volumes of oil and natural gas that can be exploited at the current technology and economic conditions, which usually go up and down following the prices.
The dramatically fall in crude oil price since middle of 2014 has made the industry suffer huge investment contraction, "more than 300 billion U.S. dollars in 2015 and 2016", making the industry not able to meet the future energy demand, said Mohammad Barkindo, secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at an event held in Washington D.C.on Tuesday.
