Ok it’s not oil but still indicative of why a buyoutDan Wilton, a gold mining CEO:
"And listen, seniors [senior mining companies] gave up greenfields exploration a long time ago because they came to realize that, why would they commit the capital on a limited subset of opportunities, when they can watch the entire market and have project developers and explorers take all the risk. And then they, you know, they invest when they know they have something."