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How long can oil companies afford to sink billions of dollars into projects at the ends of the earth -- all at a time of near rock-bottom oil prices? Never before has so much been spent to find and produce oil with so little hope of immediate profit. But Big Oil has few doubts about the value of its investments. "You can prospect at any time because oil is the fabric of our society and there is always going to be demand," says Mark Bononi, who assesses the energy industry for the investment firm Smith Barney. Moreover, huge projects like Chevron's Tengiz field in Kazakhstan are long-term ventures necessarily designed to take decades to pay off. By prospecting while oil is cheap, companies hope to secure reserves that will enable them to profit handsomely once prices rise again.