Finance, Accounting and Audit
Finance Practice
Upstream Petroleum Accounting in Oil & Gas Industry
Accounting for exploration, development and production, where the agreement decides the entry and the standard decides the argument.
- Duration
- 5 days
- Contact hours
- 30
- Level
- Intermediate
- Fee from
- On enquiry
Overview
Upstream accounting is unlike the rest of the discipline because the contract usually determines the treatment. A joint operating agreement, a production sharing contract and a concession produce different answers from identical physical facts, and the accounting follows the agreement before it follows the standard. Add successful efforts against full cost, depletion over reserves that get restated, decommissioning provisions decades out, and joint venture billing that a partner will audit, and the result is a specialism. This week works through it in that order: the agreement, the entries, then the reporting.
Who should attend
Accountants and finance staff in exploration and production companies, joint venture and revenue accountants, auditors with upstream clients, and finance staff at national oil companies and regulators.
What you will be able to do
- Read a production sharing contract or joint operating agreement for what it determines about the accounts.
- Account for exploration and evaluation cost under successful efforts and under full cost, and explain the difference.
- Calculate depletion on a reserve base that has been restated.
- Recognise and remeasure a decommissioning provision.
- Prepare and challenge a joint venture billing and a cash call.
How it is taught
Short input, then work, across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each. Exercises run on situations delegates bring rather than on a case study written for a different organisation. Cohorts are capped so that everybody is asked something.
Available as classroom, live online, in house.
Programme outline
Day 1
The agreement decides it
- Concession, production sharing and service contracts compared
- Joint operating agreements and the operator's accounting duties
- Cost recovery, profit oil, and the entitlement question
- Reading a clause for its accounting consequence
Day 2
Exploration and development
- Successful efforts and full cost, and what each one reports
- Capitalising and writing off exploration and evaluation
- Development cost and the point of first production
- Impairment on a cash generating unit that is a field
Day 3
Production, depletion and reserves
- Units of production over proved and proved developed reserves
- Restatement, and the effect of a revision on the charge
- Overlift and underlift
- Royalty, tax, and the order in which they apply
Day 4
Decommissioning
- Recognising a provision and the asset beside it
- Discount rate, inflation and remeasurement
- Changes in estimate, decades before settlement
- Funding arrangements and what they do to the balance sheet
Day 5
Joint venture accounting
- Cash calls, billings and the partner statement
- Allocating shared cost, and the disputes that follow
- Preparing for and surviving a joint venture audit
- Reporting to partners, lenders and the regulator
What you leave with
- A treatment note for one of the delegate's own agreements, tracing each entry to a clause.
- A worked depletion and decommissioning calculation on real reserve and cost data.
- A review checklist for an incoming partner billing.
Dates and fees
| Dates | Location | Format | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 to 27 November 2026 | Cairo, Egypt | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 30 November 2026 to 4 December 2026 | Durban, South Africa | Classroom | R15,000 |
| 7 to 11 December 2026 | Nairobi, Kenya | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 14 to 18 December 2026 | Lagos, Nigeria | Classroom | US$1,500 |
Fees are per delegate and cover tuition, all programme materials and the certificate. Travel, accommodation and visas are arranged by the delegate. Registration closes two weeks before a programme starts.
Certificate
A GATI certificate recording what was attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended. Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record.
It records participation. and GATI does not claim one it does not hold.