The hunt for new stores of oil and gas has been dramatically curtailed amid a global crude slump, with exploration budgets at the largest oil companies expected to tumble 50 percent next year from their peak levels in 2013, according to a new analysis. Investment banking firm Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., which tracked exploration capital spending at integrated oil companies and major exploration and production companies, forecast that spending on exploration will fall to about $25 billion next year. Oil companies are spending less in part because service costs have tumbled alongside oil prices, allowing explorers to spend less money to search for new reservoirs. But a vast majority of those spending cuts are related to a pullback in activity, according to the Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. analysis released to investors Monday. “Many (exploration and production) companies are virtually abandoning exploration altogether, especially in the U.S.,” the […]