An important aspect of business is how much it costs to produce a product or service. To cover running (also known by the term operational or opex) costs, the cost of production must be less than the selling price of the product (okay, this is very basic). In operations, this covers SWB (salary, wages and benefits), maintenance costs, logistic costs, and others.
How much is the target cost for producing a barrel of oil is? Believe it or not, 10 USD / barrel is considered expensive. I think I’ve seen targets of 2.5 – 5.0 USD / barrel. If you know a better number, your comments are most valued.
Compare this to capital expenditure. The cost to drill and produce from an offshore well may range between USD 15-30M USD, which covers the gamut between a simple well to a horizontal, extended reach well. The smallest platform I’ve seen had at least 3 wells. Topside hardware costs probably start around 70M USD for a simple structure offshore, to the sky as the limit.
And compare that to cost of engineering. Ah, we lot are an under-appreciated motley crew.
Wata - Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer 
Jabba reckon it is too inefficient?
How did Darth Vader, East India Company, and VOC ran the world? For free! with slaves!
By the way, let me post another one, so i can knock wata’s pic of the recent comment board, and have all little jabbas icon.