Suspended Exploratory Well Costs

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2015

Capitalized Exploratory Well Costs [Abstract]

Suspended Exploratory Well Costs

5. Suspended Exploratory Well Costs

The Company’s suspended exploratory well costs were $1.1 billion at September 30, 2015, and $1.5 billion at December 31, 2014. During the nine months ended September 30, 2015,$602 million of suspended exploratory well costs previously capitalized for greater than one year at December 31, 2014, primarily related to Brazil, were charged to exploration expense. Given the current oil-price environment and other considerations, the Company does not expect to have substantive exploration and development activities in Brazil for the foreseeable future. The decrease in suspended exploratory well costs was partially offset by the capitalization of costs associated with exploration drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, Colombia, and Mozambique. Projects with suspended exploratory well costs are those identified by management as exhibiting sufficient quantities of hydrocarbons to justify potential development and where management is actively pursuing efforts to assess whether reserves can be attributed to these projects. If additional information becomes available that raises substantial doubt as to the economic or operational viability of any of these projects, the associated costs will be expensed at that time.