Oil and Gas Joint Venture Accounting Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Joint Venture Accountants, Oil and Gas Accountants and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-A-026

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience with financial accounting, management accounting, accounts payable, billing, project accounting or oil and gas finance.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Oil and gas joint ventures depend on accurate, timely accounting between operators and non-operators. Errors in ownership data, cost allocations, overhead charges, cash calls, billings or revenue distributions can create disputed balances, delayed payments, audit findings and damaged partner relationships. Finance teams must interpret joint operating agreements (JOAs), apply COPAS provisions, maintain reliable division-of-interest records and produce supportable statements for partners, auditors and management.

This course develops the practical accounting skills needed to administer operated and non-operated oil and gas ventures. Participants examine JOA structures, ownership interests, joint-account chargeability, authority for expenditure (AFE) controls, cash calls, overheads, partner billings, production revenue, reporting and audit rights. They learn to trace transactions from source documentation through cost allocation, billing and general ledger reconciliation, while managing disputes, late payments, corrections and close processes. The course addresses both IFRS reporting considerations and relevant US oil and gas accounting concepts.

Instruction combines practitioner briefings with oil and gas cases, billing calculations, document review, group analysis and simulated operator–partner decisions. Participants work with realistic venture records including AFEs, cost schedules, invoice support, billing statements, production data and ownership changes. Delivered over five days from 08:30 to 16:30, the course provides approximately 6.5 contact hours daily in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online. Participants receive a certificate of completion and leave with a practical joint venture accounting control pack for use at work.

The course is suited to accounting and commercial professionals supporting exploration, development, production, decommissioning or asset-management activities where costs and revenues are shared between multiple interest holders.

What you will be able to do

  • Interpret JOA and COPAS provisions when assessing joint-account chargeability
  • Maintain division-of-interest schedules for working interests, royalties and ownership changes
  • Prepare AFEs, supplementary approvals and partner cash-call calculations
  • Allocate direct, indirect and overhead costs using contractual allocation methods
  • Produce joint-interest billings, corrections and partner balance reconciliations
  • Reconcile production volumes, liftings and revenue allocations between venture partners
  • Apply IFRS 11 and relevant oil and gas reporting principles to joint arrangements
  • Plan audit-ready controls, dispute documentation and month-end close activities

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence reviewing operator billings and challenging unsupported partner charges
  • Practical ability to prepare cash calls, AFEs and division-of-interest schedules
  • Stronger judgement when classifying capital, operating, overhead and excluded costs
  • Improved readiness for partner audits, billing disputes and month-end close reviews
  • Transferable templates for administering operated and non-operated venture interests

For your organisation

  • Fewer billing errors caused by inaccurate ownership, allocation or cut-off data
  • Improved recovery of chargeable costs from non-operating venture partners
  • Better cash forecasting through disciplined AFE, budget and cash-call administration
  • Stronger evidence for joint-account audits, disputes and partner challenge responses
  • More consistent reporting between operations, finance, commercial and tax teams

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can interpret the contractual structure and accounting obligations of an oil and gas joint venture.

  • Joint operating agreements: parties, interests, operatorship, voting thresholds and liabilities
  • Distinguish working interest, revenue interest, net profits interest and royalty burdens
  • Map operator and non-operator responsibilities through exploration, development, production and abandonment
  • Apply joint-account scope clauses to chargeability decisions and dispute prevention
  • Interpret COPAS Accounting Procedure provisions, exhibits, hierarchy and amendment controls
  • Trace ownership changes, farm-outs, assignments and effective-date accounting consequences
  • Identify approvals required for AFEs, budgets, supplemental cash calls and commitments

Participants can maintain the ownership and master-data records required for accurate partner accounting.

  • Set up venture master data: interests, cost centres, billing addresses and currencies
  • Build division-of-interest schedules for gross, net, carried and recoupment positions
  • Maintain effective-dated interest tables after transfers, elections and title corrections
  • Reconcile partner master records to executed JOAs and ownership notices
  • Configure billing frequencies, invoice formats, payment terms and tax registrations
  • Control master-data changes using maker-checker approval and audit-trail evidence
  • Document data ownership, retention rules and periodic validation responsibilities

Participants can classify, allocate and support joint-account costs under contractual accounting procedures.

  • Classify joint-account costs as direct charges, indirect charges or exclusions
  • Apply COPAS overhead rates, allocation bases, limits and annual updates
  • Allocate field labour, equipment usage, materials and shared services consistently
  • Assess chargeability of headquarters costs, legal fees, insurance and financing
  • Separate capital, operating expense, abandonment and inventory-related cost categories
  • Test allocations for causality, consistency, materiality and contractual compliance
  • Prepare support for disputed charges and partner challenge responses

Participants can prepare and control AFE, budget and cash-call processes for venture expenditure.

  • Construct an AFE with scope, estimates, contingencies, approvals and interests
  • Compare original AFEs, supplements and actuals using variance analysis
  • Link annual work programmes and budgets to cash-call requirements
  • Calculate partner cash calls from approved expenditure forecasts and ownership shares
  • Account for advances, overfunding, refunds, interest and defaulting participants
  • Monitor commitment authority, expenditure ceilings and authorization expiry dates
  • Prepare cash-call packs containing forecasts, approvals, calculations and payment instructions

Participants can produce accurate joint-interest billings and reconcile partner balances to the ledger.

  • Generate joint-interest billings from approved costs, allocations and ownership percentages
  • Apply cut-off rules to accrued costs, late invoices and prior-period adjustments
  • Reconcile gross expenditure, billed amounts, partner balances and general ledger
  • Process billing corrections, credit notes, rebills and ownership-effective-date changes
  • Calculate interest on overdue balances under JOA and accounting-procedure terms
  • Prepare billing statements with expenditure detail, cash movements and supporting references
  • Resolve suspense items before month-end close and partner reporting

Participants can reconcile production, entitlement and revenue information between venture partners.

  • Map production volumes from measurement systems to entitlement and revenue records
  • Distinguish working-interest, royalty, production-sharing and net-profit entitlement calculations
  • Calculate revenue allocations using division-of-interest schedules and sales statements
  • Reconcile liftings, inventories, imbalances and purchaser remittances between partners
  • Account for transportation, processing, marketing deductions and tariff allocations
  • Apply IFRS 15 or ASC 606 principles to hydrocarbon sales
  • Investigate volume-to-value variances using production, price and allocation evidence

Participants can prepare reporting support for joint operations and joint ventures under applicable standards.

  • Apply IFRS 11 classification to joint operations and joint ventures
  • Recognise assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses for joint-operation interests
  • Compare proportionate operational records with equity-accounted joint-venture reporting
  • Assess impairment indicators for fields, development assets and decommissioning obligations
  • Coordinate IAS 16, IFRS 6 and IAS 37 accounting judgments
  • Prepare venture reporting packs with reconciliations, disclosures and review evidence
  • Translate foreign-currency transactions, partner balances and reporting-currency adjustments

Participants can establish audit-ready evidence and test controls over joint venture accounting processes.

  • Plan joint-account audits using COPAS rights, notice periods and records
  • Build audit trails from invoice image to billing and ledger
  • Test high-risk costs through sampling, source documents and authorization evidence
  • Evaluate internal controls over procurement, allocations, billing and master data
  • Manage audit exceptions, settlement proposals, reservations and corrective actions
  • Retain documentation supporting chargeability, approvals, calculations and correspondence
  • Report control deficiencies with owners, due dates and closure evidence

Participants can manage disputed amounts and communicate evidence-based positions to venture partners.

  • Identify common disputes involving overhead, affiliate charges, procurement and operator negligence
  • Apply JOA dispute clauses, escalation routes and limitation periods
  • Prepare fact-based position papers using contract citations and cost evidence
  • Reconcile contested balances while preserving undisputed invoices and payment discipline
  • Assess withholding tax, VAT and customs effects on venture billings
  • Coordinate tax data with partner requirements, statutory filings and invoice documentation
  • Track claims, settlements and recovery allocations through close-out accounting

Participants can improve joint venture close discipline, performance reporting and control ownership.

  • Design month-end close calendars for operator, non-operator and corporate deadlines
  • Use ageing, variance, unbilled-cost and cash-call dashboards to focus review
  • Set performance measures for billing timeliness, disputes, recoveries and close quality
  • Prioritise process improvements using root-cause analysis and control-gap assessment
  • Create a 90-day application plan for one venture-accounting improvement
  • Define handoffs between operations, procurement, treasury, tax and financial reporting
  • Present management information linking venture performance, cash exposure and accounting actions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Joint venture accounting control checklist
  2. Division-of-interest schedule template
  3. AFE and cash-call calculation model
  4. Joint-interest billing reconciliation template
  5. Joint-account audit evidence checklist
  6. 90-day venture accounting application plan

Who should attend

  • Joint Venture Accountants — manage partner costs, billings, balances and reporting
  • Oil and Gas Accountants — apply industry accounting treatments to shared operations
  • Finance Managers — oversee venture controls, close quality and partner exposure
  • Joint Venture Analysts — analyse AFEs, ownership changes, costs and revenue data
  • Commercial Managers — interpret financial obligations within JOAs and partner arrangements
  • Internal Auditors — test joint-account controls, chargeability and supporting evidence

Skills and tools covered

JOA interpretationJoint-interest billingCost allocationCash-call administrationRevenue reconciliationJoint-account auditing

Tools and standards

COPAS Accounting Procedure, Authority for Expenditure (AFE), IFRS 11 Joint Arrangements, ASC 932 Extractive Activities—Oil and Gas

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short technical briefings followed by oil and gas case work, group exercises, billing simulations and facilitated reviews of realistic documents. Participants interpret JOA clauses, assess COPAS chargeability, prepare AFE and cash-call calculations, reconcile partner accounts and investigate revenue differences. Trainers use examples from operated and non-operated ventures, adapting scenarios to participant sectors and reporting requirements. Each participant develops an application plan focused on an accounting control, reporting issue or billing process relevant to their role.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience with financial accounting, management accounting, accounts payable, billing, project accounting or oil and gas finance. They should understand debits and credits, accruals, reconciliations, cost centres, budgets and basic financial statements. Familiarity with oil and gas operations, production terminology or joint ventures is helpful but not essential. The course explains the purpose and structure of JOAs and COPAS procedures before applying them. No legal qualification, petroleum engineering background, specialist accounting software knowledge or prior IFRS 11 expertise is required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need a working understanding of basic accounting, accruals, reconciliations and financial statements. Oil and gas experience is useful but not required, as the course explains the operating and contractual context before applying accounting methods.

Participants should bring a calculator and, where permitted, examples of anonymised billing, cash-call, AFE or reconciliation issues from their work. Course materials and practical case documents are provided.

The course is designed for joint venture accountants, oil and gas accountants, finance managers, commercial staff and internal auditors. It is particularly relevant to teams supporting operated assets, non-operated interests or partner reporting.

General oil and gas accounting courses commonly focus on exploration, production, reserves, depletion or asset accounting. This course concentrates on accounting between venture partners: JOAs, COPAS, ownership interests, chargeability, cash calls, billings, audits and disputes.

Participants can use the templates and checklists to review ownership data, assess cost chargeability, improve billing reconciliations and prepare audit evidence. The application plan identifies one process improvement that can be implemented after the course.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours, with scheduled breaks. Time is divided between technical instruction, case analysis, calculations, document review, group discussion and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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