Although the price of crude has seen a significant rebound from its lows at the beginning of the year, it needs to be higher for a sustained period for global exploration activity to undergo a major boost, Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) Chief Executive Andrew Gould said Friday.

Benchmark crude prices traded at about $66.94 per barrel on Friday morning. In a second-quarter earnings call, Gould said that $60 barrel "is OK, but it's not going to lead to a rush in activity. $70 (per barrel) might be a lot more encouraging," he said.

The reason, Gould said, is that most of the easy oil is gone, and new projects are located in areas that are expensive to produce, such as the deepwater or the Alberta tar sands. In addition, borrowing costs - to finance these major projects - have gone up in the wake of the financial crisis.

The recent volatility in oil prices - which reached record heights above $145 a barrel last summer, only to plummet near $33 per barrel earlier this year - has led to the postponement of some projects by major oil companies as they seek better guidance on what future oil prices will look like. However, "there's been very little actual cancellation" of these projects, Gould said.

Schlumberger, with principal offices in Houston, Paris and The Hague, is the world's largest oilfield services company.

-By Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9214; angel.gonzalez@dowjones.com

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