Companies fall short in finding new oil, gas-EIA

WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Big U.S. oil and gas companies have invested a big chunk of their record profits in exploring for energy reserves, but so far have failed to come up with significant new supplies, the government's top energy forecasting agency said on Wednesday.

Big Oil has been criticized for its huge profits, but the major energy companies' expenditures to hunt for oil and gas supplies totaled $203 billion last year, 60 percent higher than in 2004, according to the Energy Information Administration.

"Profits have increased sharply in the past five years, greatly increasing the amount of cash that companies have available for investments," the EIA said in a new report. "However, to date, the big increase in spending has not resulted in significant increases in reserves."

The agency said that reserve additions in 2006 exceeded those of only two of the previous 17 years.

The EIA pointed out that the companies' delayed success may be due to the many years it takes between the time oil is discovered and then designated as "proved" reserves.

The agency also said that higher costs for raw materials and drilling rigs means that companies may have allocated a portion of the additional spending just to maintain what they were already doing.

"In the next few months, oil companies will report their 2007 reserve additions and we may start to see some results of the higher expenditures," the EIA said. "Oil markets are anxiously waiting for the goods to arrive." (Reporting by Tom Doggett; editing by Jim Marshall)