43 years of Find & Development Costs for the Supermajors.

“My formula for success is rise early, work late and strike oil.” J. Paul Getty

In 1978 as a result of two oil crises, the SEC adopted accounting rules that required oil & gas companies to disclose information regarding their reserves in the ground.

From that point forward, two pieces of information could now be garnered.

1. How oil & gas reserves change from year to year.

2. How much they spent in acquiring, exploring and developing such resources.

And with that we get a picture that looks something like this.

Note the chart includes ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, Total and Equinor as well as all the acquired companies since 1978.

Let’s break down what the big dawgs have been doing for the last ~43 years.