Oil and gas companies have tapped technology, targeted service cost reductions and found other ways to become more frugal, but their efforts may not be enough to push forward pending projects anytime soon.

That is according to Wood Mackenzie, which said in a report that operators must focus on “project optimization and adopt smarter ways of working with the service sector.” Analysis by the energy consultancy revealed that $50 oil means companies can’t make money on new projects. That goes for both conventional and unconventional projects in North America.

“We estimate that as much as $1.5 trillion of investment spend destined for new (pre-sanctioned) and U.S. tight oil projects is now out of the money, or in starker terms, uneconomic at a $50 oil price,” James Webb, upstream research manager for Wood Mackenzie, said in a prepared statement. “This spend is very much at risk.”

So far this year companies have invested $220 billion less than what Wood Mackenzie predicted before the oil price crash. The spending outlook for next year doesn’t appear much better. Operators are targeting an average cost reduction of between 20% and 30% for projects, the firm said, but only 10-15% on average will come from the service sector.

“Additional measures are needed to manage costs: re-working field development plans, optimizing project design and more innovative approaches to project management will all play important parts,” Webb said.

Further squeezing oilfield service companies will not be enough to ensure the economic viability of some projects, according to the firm’s report. This is despite the service sector’s willingness to work with E&Ps.

During its latest earnings call, Schlumberger CEO Paal Kibsgaard noted how the company is working with customers to lower the cost per barrel through improved operational efficiency and reliability, new technology, work flows and business models. He said customers are “more and more starting to buy in to the fact that we have technologies and work flows that can create more value.”

New approaches are also taking shape. Kibsgaard said that some customers are willing to take on performance-based contracts, instead of a traditional contract.

But oil prices—which have fallen from highs of more than $107 last summer to about $46/bbl (WTI) today—have stalled 46 projects, Wood Mackenzie said. The slowdown in activity is taking a toll on not only the E&Ps, but also service companies that depend on such projects.

“The weak pipeline of new projects is resulting in very competitive bidding from the service sector as E&P companies negotiate hard on pre-sanction projects,” said Obo Idornigie, principal upstream research analyst for Wood Mackenzie.

The service sector could handle an average of 40-50 new projects globally a year, Idornigie said.

Yet, because of today’s commodity price environment—the result of a supply-and-demand imbalance—Wood Mackenzie thinks only six new projects will advance this year and about 10 in 2016, he said.

“The industry needs to strike a balance between near- and long-term drivers,” said Idornigie. “Pushing the service sector too hard now is only likely to shore up problems once more attractive fundamentals return: Increasingly severe job cuts mean that the industry is losing skilled resources that will take time to attract back when prices recover.”

Velda Addison can be reached at vaddison@hartenergy.com.