In a survey of geoscientists conducted by Seismic Micro Technology (SMT), respondents said that one of the new technologies with greatest momentum is WITSML, the data exchange standard for drilling data managed by Energistics.

In 2010, 25 per cent of respondents said they were using it, and in 2011, 34 per cent said they were currently using it, and a further 41 per cent said they planned to use it.

The company did not reveal how many geoscientists were surveyed, or their geographical location.

Also in the survey, three quarters of respondents said they thought prices would be above $100 at the end of 2011.

When the same survey was conducted in May 2010, under a third of respondents said they thought prices would rise to above $100 in a year.

56 per cent of respondents said their organisation was increasing exploration for unconventional oil.

Geoscientists said they expect the price of crude oil will be $150 per barrel at the end of 2012, in a survey conducted by geoscientific software company SMT.

The Eagle Ford shale (Texas) was the top resource identified for unconventional shale oil exploration, followed by the Marcellus and the Niobrara shales.

Indy Charkabarti, chief marketing officer of SMT, which organised the survey, said that the increasing interest in unconventional oil could reflect the fact that unconventional gas is proving unviable due to low gas price.

Survey respondents said that they needed a gas price of above $5 / MMBtu for unconventional gas to be economic in the US, and current prices are around $4 / MMBtu. A third of respondents said they needed prices higher than $7 / MMBtu for unconventional gas to be viable.