Oil exploration can cost tens or hundreds of billions of dollars.

The actual costs depend on such factors as the location of possible oil reserves (i.e. on land or in deep water), how large the oil field is expected to be, how detailed the exploration information must be, and the type and structure of the rock below the ground. Exploration requires careful mapping of the surface in order to locate suitable sites (ie, types of geological structures), deep formation surveys (eg, with two and three-dimensional seismic techniques), and test-drilling. It is not easy to determine a typical cost of such activities.

OPEC has the lowest average production costs in the oil industry. This is partly because some OPEC Member Countries have large amounts of oil in reasonably accessible locations. Yet OPEC Members will still need to spend tens of billions of dollars in future to meet the growing need for oil.