[GratefulCitizen]

These companies are in the game to make a profit.

They're probably limiting exploration because they already know the degree of demand destruction and the amount of oil that is about to hit the market.

Oil companies and producers have no interest in an overpriced product.
An overpriced product ultimately leads to price volatility (guess who makes a profit from that).

Exploration and development require significant capital investment.

A stable price of oil allows them to more accurately forecast future revenues which, in turn, mitigates the risk inherent to capital investment which, in turn, allows them to maximize profits.
(Through minimizing fixed and marginal costs)

Oil companies have a vested interest in expanding the scale of the oil market.
High prices are counter to this effort.

However, they will never really invest in alternatives. It's just PR.
There do not stand to benefit by developing potentially disruptive technologies.
Someone else will have to do it.

In the meanwhile, the world will stay addicted to the cheapest source of energy around.