From small wildcatters to oil-services giants, the petroleum industry is bracing for bad times now that the Obama administration has put a six-month moratorium on deepwater oil exploration in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

WSJ: Drilling Ban Reverberates Through Industry

Mr. Dudley is bullish on oil exploration in the fracking age, the ultra-deepwater age, the oil-sands age.

WSJ: The Weekend Interview with Bob Dudley: Three Years After the Spill, BP Gets Bullish

Deepwater exploration is the latest holy grail of Big Oil.

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Golden, then a staff geologist and now head of deepwater exploration for BP, came up with a theory that massive oil deposits lay just beyond the Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico, in waters 300 meters deep or more.

FORBES: Going deep

In contrast to Brazil, where most exploration activity is dominated by the NOC (National Oil Company) Petrobraz, deepwater spending in West African countries such as Angolia, Nigeria and Ghana is dominated by oil majors such as BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Shell.

FORBES: Transocean Pipes To $85 On Brazil, Africa Deepwater Drilling

The Gulf of Mexico has become an important deepwater exploration and production region and it now contributes to 27% of the total crude oil production in the U.S. BP owns the largest acreages in the Gulf and plans to resume drilling in the region to prop up its declining crude production.

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There Browne began to take a harder look at the promise of deepwater drilling, largely out of necessity:He took charge of exploration and determined that Sohio's oil projects outside of Alaska were a mishmash of expensive properties that would never yield a proper profit.

FORBES: Going deep