If a country has oil and gas reserves, must it drill for it? At a time when the conflict in West Asia has hotted up again, and crude oil prices are back on the boil, this may seem a strange question to ask.

But I do so nonetheless, to encourage BRICS leaders gathered in Delhi for the 18th summit of the grouping to contemplate the relevance of the orthodoxy “drill, baby, drill”, against the backdrop of the altered landscape of petroleum market fundamentals.

The fact is that the lead time between the drilling of the first well of a new hydrocarbon exploration venture, discovery, the appraisal of this discovery, the creation of the development infrastructure and then first production could be anywhere between 10 years and 15 years, and because it is timely.

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The Nepal tragedy has once again reminded the world of the catastrophic consequences of the unhealthy linkage between economic development, energy demand, and environmental degradation.

Readers must not presume that by posing the question, I am suggesting countries should not drill. There are, however, four petroleum specific reasons why the answer requires reflection.

First, the success of an exploration and production (EP) programme........

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