A cost incurred when a company purchases, researches and develops properties in an effort to establish commodity reserves. Exploration and development businesses rely on finding commodities to manufacture and sell. Finding and development costs represent a cost of doing business for these types of companies. |||While F&D can relate to any commodity company, it is commonly used in regards to the upstream costs of an oil or gas business. In this case, the costs of finding and development can be expressed as barrel of oil equivalents.