| 1908 | The English Institution of Mining and Metallurgy established a Mine Accounts and Cost sheet Committee in an attempt to standardize an accounting system for British mining industry |
| 1963 | The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) commissioned W. B. Coutts to study the accounting for oil and gas practices in use and the rationales for the different practices |
| 1964 | The Accounting Principles Board (APB) in the USA appointed a partner (Robert Field) at Price Waterhouse in 1964 to study financial accounting and reporting in the EI. Field recommended abolishing FC method and keeping the SE methods of accounting for EI |
| 1972 | The Australian Society of Accountants (ASA) commissioned Lourens and Henderson to undertake a study on financial reporting in the EI to develop a suitable accounting practice by the Australian mining industry. Lourens and Henderson recommended aligning the accounting practices with the concept of SE method of accounting |
| 1973 | The Australian Society of Accountants (ASA) opened up a discussion which aimed at bringing about greater uniformity for pre-production expenditure of the EI. As a result of this discussion, the area of interest accounting method was adopted in Australia |
| 1977 | The Australian Accounting Standard (AAS) 7 allowed extractive companies to choose the accounting method they like to use for pre-production costs |
| 1977 | Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (SFAS) 19, Financial Accounting and Reporting by Oil and Gas Producing Companies, was issued. The SFAS 19 called on full cost companies to switch to successful efforts methods |
| 1978 | The SEC required the use of its own reserve recognition accounting (RRA) method. RRA was proposed by the SEC in Accounting Series Release No. 253 (ASR 253), issued in August 1978. |
| 1998 | The International Accounting Standard Committee (IASC) appointed a Steering Committee to develop a comprehensive accounting and reporting standard, this project was stalled in 2000. |
| 2001 | In 2001, the IASB announced that the project of constructing a comprehensive accounting standard for the EI will be resumed when time permit. In July 2002, the IASB suggested that completing a comprehensive project for the EI was not feasible in time |
| 2004 | The IASB issued IFRS 6 (exploration for and evaluation of mineral resources), with an effective date of 1 January 2006. IFRS 6 did not stipulate specific cost method and permits extractive companies to follow the accounting policies they used prior to the adoption of IFRSs. |
| 2004 | In 2004, the IASB authorized a research project to comprehensively address accounting for EI. The aim was to issue a discussion paper in late 2008 which was aimed to be a foundation for constructing a comprehensive IFRS for the EI to be issued in 2011. The Discussion Paper (the extractive activities) was issued in April 2010 and comments were invited to be received by 30 July 2010. Given the feedback and comments received by the IASB on the Discussion Paper, the IASB decided to drop this project |
| 2008 | The SEC issued a “Final Rule – Modernization of Oil and Gas Reporting”. Aimed at offering a revision to the definition and evaluation methods of oil and gas reserves and to the disclosure requirements of these reserves |
| 2010 | The FASB published an accounting standard update: extractive activities–oil and gas (Topic 932). The objective of which is to “to align the oil and gas reserve estimation and disclosure requirements of Extractive Activities–Oil and Gas (Topic 932) with the requirements in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s final rule, Modernization of the Oil and Gas Reporting Requirements (the Final Rule)”. |
| 2018 | The IASB added the extractive activities to its agenda in 2018. The IASB decided to start a new research project on EI. |
| 2022 | The IASB changed the status of IFRS 6 from interim to permanent |