LONDON, August 30. /TASS/. Globally, oil explorers in 2015 discovered just about one-tenth as much oil as they have found annually on average since 1960, analysts at the UK-based consulting firm Wood Mackenzie said on Monday.

The number of discovered oilfields may be even lower in 2016, according to their forecasts. In 2015, just 2.7 bln barrels of new oil supply had been discovered, the smallest amount since 1947, according to Wood Mackenzie.

In 2015, just 2.7 bln barrels of new oil supply had been discovered, the smallest amount since 1947, according to Wood Mackenzie. This year, drillers found just 736 mln barrels of conventional crude as of the end of July 2016.

At present, 209 wells were drilled during August 2016, down from 680 in 2015 and 1,167 in 2014, the consulting firm indicated. The annual average is about 1,500 wells based on data going back to 1960.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) lowered the global oil demand growth outlook to 1.2 mln barrels per day in 2017 in its market report released on August 11. Global oil demand is expected to be 97.5 mln barrels daily in the next year, the IEA noted. The world’s oil demand forecast for this year is 96.3 mln barrels per day, which is 1.4 mln barrels higher than in 2015, the Agency reported.