🛢️ Part of our Oil & Gas Industry Training Series — browse all related courses →
About This Course
The oil and gas industry operates under a uniquely complex set of financial rules that differ substantially from general commercial accounting. From production-sharing contracts and joint venture arrangements to depletion accounting and sector-specific tax regimes, finance professionals working in this space must master a specialised body of knowledge that general accounting qualifications rarely cover in adequate depth.
This five-day TrainingComplex programme — Oil and Gas Accounting and Taxation Training — is designed to close that gap. It provides a structured, practitioner-focused grounding in the full spectrum of petroleum accounting, financial reporting, and fiscal arrangements, equipping participants to perform confidently in upstream exploration companies, national oil corporations, regulatory agencies, and petroleum-sector advisory firms.
Drawing on internationally recognised frameworks including IFRS 6, US GAAP full-cost and successful-efforts methods, and the fiscal regimes prevalent across Africa and the Middle East, the course combines conceptual clarity with hands-on application. Participants will work through realistic case studies drawn from producing basins, analyse actual contract structures, and build practical competence in areas such as royalty accounting, ring-fencing rules, decommissioning provisions, and transfer pricing in petroleum transactions.
By the end of the programme, delegates will have the confidence and technical vocabulary to engage with auditors, tax authorities, joint-venture partners, and senior management — and to add measurable value to their organisations' financial management and compliance functions.
Who Should Attend
- Finance and accounting officers employed by oil and gas exploration and production companies
- Tax analysts and fiscal advisors working with petroleum sector clients
- Government officials in ministries of energy, finance, and petroleum revenue management
- National oil company finance staff responsible for reporting and compliance
- Internal and external auditors assigned to oil and gas engagements
- CFOs and financial controllers seeking sector-specific technical depth
- Legal and commercial professionals involved in petroleum contract negotiations
- Banking and investment analysts covering the energy sector
Learning Objectives
- Explain the key differences between oil and gas accounting and general commercial accounting standards
- Apply both the successful-efforts method and the full-cost method to upstream exploration and development expenditure
- Interpret and account for production-sharing contracts, concession agreements, and service contracts
- Record joint venture transactions, cash calls, and working-interest arrangements accurately
- Calculate depletion, depreciation, and amortisation using the units-of-production method
- Account for asset retirement obligations and decommissioning provisions under IFRS and relevant local standards
- Analyse petroleum fiscal regimes including royalties, profit oil, windfall taxes, and corporate income tax applicable to the sector
- Apply ring-fencing rules and understand their impact on taxable income computation
- Identify transfer pricing risks in intra-group petroleum transactions and apply arm's-length principles
- Prepare and review oil and gas financial statements in compliance with IFRS 6 and sector disclosure requirements
Course Modules
Module 1: Overview of the Oil and Gas Industry and Its Financial Landscape
- Structure of the petroleum value chain: upstream, midstream, and downstream
- Key industry participants: IOCs, NOCs, independents, and service companies
- Why oil and gas accounting differs from general commercial accounting
- Introduction to petroleum fiscal systems and their global diversity
- Commodity price cycles and their direct impact on capital allocation, impairment testing, and going-concern assessments
- Overview of reserves classifications (proved, probable, possible) and their significance for financial reporting and investor communication
Module 2: Petroleum Contracts and Their Accounting Implications
- Types of petroleum agreements: concessions, production-sharing contracts, and service contracts
- Key terms in PSCs: cost oil, profit oil, cost recovery limits, and government take
- How contract structure drives accounting recognition and measurement choices
- Case study: mapping a West African PSC to its accounting entries
- Risk-service contracts and technical-assistance agreements: distinguishing features and revenue recognition treatment
- Contract renegotiation and modification clauses: accounting consequences when fiscal terms are amended mid-licence
Module 3: Exploration and Evaluation Expenditure — IFRS 6 and Policy Choices
- Scope and objectives of IFRS 6 Exploration for and Evaluation of Mineral Resources
- Successful-efforts method: capitalisation criteria and immediate expensing of dry holes
- Full-cost method: pooling costs and ceiling-test impairment
- Disclosure requirements and selecting an accounting policy for E&E assets
- Indicators of impairment specific to E&E assets: licence expiry, relinquishment decisions, and absence of further planned expenditure
- Transition from E&E to development phase: reclassification triggers, timing judgements, and the measurement basis applied on transfer
Module 4: Development, Production, and Joint Venture Accounting
- Capitalising development costs and transitioning from E&E to producing assets
- Units-of-production depletion, depreciation, and amortisation in practice
- Joint venture structures: working interests, carried interests, and farm-out agreements
- Accounting for cash calls, joint billing statements, and operator reimbursements
- Farm-out transactions: recognising gains, partial disposals, and the treatment of contingent payments under IFRS
- Joint operations versus joint ventures under IFRS 11: classification criteria and the materially different accounting outcomes that follow
Module 5: Revenue Recognition in the Oil and Gas Sector
- Applying IFRS 15 to petroleum sales: identifying performance obligations and transaction prices
- Lift imbalances: accounting for overlift and underlift positions
- Royalties-in-kind versus royalties-in-cash: recognition and measurement
- Gas balancing arrangements and their impact on reported revenue
- Variable consideration in petroleum contracts: price adjustments, provisional pricing, and the constraint on revenue recognition
- Take-or-pay and minimum-volume commitments: when a liability arises and how deferred revenue is subsequently released
Module 6: Decommissioning, Rehabilitation, and Asset Retirement Obligations
- Recognising asset retirement obligations under IAS 37 and IFRS 16
- Estimating decommissioning costs: engineering inputs and discount rate selection
- Unwinding of discount and subsequent changes in estimates
- Decommissioning funds: structure, accounting treatment, and tax interaction
- Reassessing ARO provisions when new legislation, revised well counts, or updated cost studies alter the underlying obligation
- Accounting for shared decommissioning infrastructure: apportioning liabilities and costs among multiple working-interest holders
Module 7: Petroleum Taxation — Royalties, Profit Oil, and Corporate Tax
- Royalty regimes: ad valorem, specific, and sliding-scale structures
- Profit-oil splits in production-sharing contracts: mechanics and accounting
- Corporate income tax in petroleum jurisdictions: rates, exemptions, and incentives
- Windfall profit taxes and additional petroleum levies: triggers and computation
- Applying IAS 12 to petroleum tax: recognising current and deferred tax when multiple levies interact within the same fiscal regime
- Stabilisation clauses in petroleum contracts: legal function, limitations, and the accounting implications when host-government tax terms change
Module 8: Ring-Fencing, Cost Recovery, and Allowable Deductions
- The concept and purpose of ring-fencing in petroleum taxation
- Allowable versus disallowable costs in ring-fenced petroleum computation
- Cost recovery pools: eligible costs, carry-forward rules, and uplift provisions
- Practical exercise: computing taxable income under a ring-fenced PSC regime
- Group financing costs within a ring-fence: thin-capitalisation rules and restrictions on inter-company interest deductions
- Interaction between ring-fencing and deferred tax accounting: recognising temporary differences when tax and accounting cost pools diverge
Module 9: Transfer Pricing in Oil and Gas Transactions
- Why transfer pricing risks are elevated in vertically integrated petroleum groups
- Arm's-length pricing for crude oil, gas, and intra-group services
- OECD guidelines and their application to petroleum commodity transactions
- Documentation requirements and common audit triggers in petroleum transfer pricing
- Selecting and defending a transfer pricing method for crude liftings: comparable uncontrolled price, netback, and other approaches in practice
- Country-by-country reporting obligations under BEPS Action 13 and their specific implications for large multinational petroleum groups
Module 10: Financial Reporting, Disclosure, and Petroleum Revenue Management
- Preparing segment disclosures and reserve-quantity disclosures for oil and gas entities
- Key performance indicators and non-GAAP measures used by petroleum companies
- Government petroleum revenue management: EITI reporting and transparency standards
- Integrating tax and accounting functions: building a compliant and efficient finance team
- Climate-related financial disclosures under TCFD and emerging ISSB standards: reporting stranded-asset risk and emissions liabilities in petroleum accounts
- Managing restatement risk in petroleum reporting: common sources of material error and the controls that auditors and regulators expect to see in place
Requirements & Prerequisites
Participants should hold a professional accounting qualification or have at least two years of practical experience in finance, accounting, or tax roles. Familiarity with basic financial statements — income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement — is assumed throughout the programme. Prior exposure to the oil and gas sector is beneficial but not required, as the course introduces all sector-specific concepts from a solid foundation.
Training Methodology
- Annotated case studies drawn from real upstream and midstream company financial statements, used to illustrate accounting method choices and their P&L impact
- Hands-on journal entry workshops where participants record exploration costs, production receipts, and decommissioning provisions under guided instruction
- Contract analysis exercises in which delegates dissect production-sharing agreement schedules and identify the accounting and tax implications of each clause
- Small-group tax computation drills covering royalty calculations, profit-oil splits, and corporate tax under ring-fenced petroleum regimes
- Comparative framework sessions contrasting IFRS 6, US GAAP successful-efforts, and full-cost methods using side-by-side worked examples
- Scenario-based discussions simulating a joint-venture audit query, requiring participants to prepare responses using correct accounting evidence
- Peer review of draft financial statement notes and disclosure checklists against IFRS 6 and sector best-practice requirements
- Facilitator-led Q&A panels drawing on real regulatory challenges encountered in African and Gulf petroleum jurisdictions
Organisational Benefits
- Improved accuracy and compliance in petroleum financial reporting, reducing audit findings and regulatory penalties
- Stronger internal capacity to manage complex production-sharing and joint-venture accounting without over-reliance on external consultants
- Enhanced ability to negotiate and review petroleum contracts from an informed financial perspective
- Reduced tax leakage through correct application of allowable deductions, ring-fencing rules, and decommissioning provisions
- Better alignment between finance teams and technical operations staff, leading to more reliable cost-tracking and project economics
- Greater credibility with joint-venture partners, government regulators, and international auditors
- Strengthened governance and transparency in revenue recognition and petroleum revenue reporting
- A pipeline of finance professionals capable of supporting organisational growth as the energy sector expands across Africa and the Gulf
Where Is Oil and Gas Accounting and Taxation Training Offered?
This course runs in-person across: Cape Town, Nairobi, Kampala, Nakuru, Dubai, Naivasha, Arusha, Pretoria, Addis Ababa, Abuja, Kisumu, Johannesburg, Dar es Salaam, Accra, Zanzibar, Mombasa, Kigali, Lagos, Riyadh, plus Live Virtual (online) cohorts. Browse live dates for your city below.
Upcoming Schedules
| Location | Format | Dates | Price |
|---|
| Cape Town, South Africa |
In-Person |
5 Oct 2026 – 9 Oct 2026 |
USD 3,800 |
| Nairobi, Kenya |
In-Person |
5 Oct 2026 – 9 Oct 2026 |
KES 105,000 |
| Kampala, Uganda |
In-Person |
5 Oct 2026 – 9 Oct 2026 |
USD 1,900 |
| Nakuru, Kenya |
In-Person |
12 Oct 2026 – 16 Oct 2026 |
KES 115,000 |
| Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
In-Person |
12 Oct 2026 – 16 Oct 2026 |
USD 4,100 |
| Naivasha, Kenya |
In-Person |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
KES 115,000 |
| Arusha, Tanzania |
In-Person |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
USD 2,100 |
| Pretoria, South Africa |
In-Person |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
USD 3,300 |
| Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
In-Person |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
USD 2,400 |
| Abuja, Nigeria |
In-Person |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
USD 2,800 |
| Kisumu, Kenya |
In-Person |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
KES 120,000 |
| Live Virtual |
Online |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
KES 80,000 |
| Johannesburg, South Africa |
In-Person |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
USD 3,500 |
| Live Virtual |
Online |
24 Oct 2026 – 15 Nov 2026 |
KES 80,000 |
| Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
In-Person |
26 Oct 2026 – 30 Oct 2026 |
USD 2,300 |
+233 more dates — view live schedule →
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need prior oil and gas industry experience to attend this course?
No prior oil and gas experience is required. The course is designed to build sector-specific knowledge from a solid accounting foundation, so participants with general finance or tax backgrounds will follow the content comfortably. Existing industry professionals will benefit from the structured technical depth and regulatory detail.
Which accounting standards does the course cover?
The programme focuses primarily on IFRS 6 (Exploration for and Evaluation of Mineral Resources), IFRS 15 (Revenue Recognition), IAS 37 (Provisions and Decommissioning), and IAS 12 (Income Taxes) as applied in the petroleum sector. It also compares US GAAP successful-efforts and full-cost methods where relevant to provide a comprehensive international perspective.
Will participants receive a certificate upon completion?
Yes. All delegates who attend and complete the full five-day programme will receive a TrainingComplex Certificate of Completion in Oil and Gas Accounting and Taxation, which can be presented to employers and used for continuing professional development records.
Is this course relevant to government officials working in petroleum revenue agencies?
Absolutely. Government finance officers, revenue authority staff, and petroleum ministry officials are among the key target audiences. The curriculum includes dedicated coverage of fiscal regimes, royalty computation, cost-recovery oversight, and EITI-aligned reporting — all directly applicable to regulatory and revenue-management roles.
Can this training be delivered in-house for a company team?
Yes. TrainingComplex offers customised in-house delivery of this programme for organisations that wish to train groups of six or more staff. The content can be tailored to the specific contract types, jurisdictions, and reporting frameworks relevant to your organisation. Contact TrainingComplex to discuss a bespoke proposal.
