Neptun Deep Offshore Gas Perimeter is the most expensive hydrocarbon production project with completed exploration work and ready to be launched, from a portfolio of 40 such projects by the American giant ExxonMobil – which has exploration costs capitalized in excess of half a billion dollars, according to a company’s 2018 annual report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Thus, according to the cited source, Neptun Deep capitalized as assets exploration costs worth $ 536 million in the period since 2012, the year of the discovery of deposits, and 2016, when the exploration work was completed. “We continue the discussions with the Government (Romanian – n.r.) on the development plan,” ExxonMobil said, according to profit.ro.

The amount is higher than the Gorgon Area Ullage projects in Australia, which will extract liquefied gas ($ 318 million between 1994-2015) and Papua LNG ($ 246 million in 2017), the next two on the list.