Oil and Gas Revenue Auditing Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Internal Auditors, External Auditors and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-A-127

Before you join: Participants should have working knowledge of accounting entries, financial statements and standard audit concepts such as assertions, materiality and audit evidence.

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

Revenue in oil and gas is rarely a simple invoice-to-cash process. A single cargo can involve production allocation, custody transfer, benchmark pricing, quality adjustments, transportation deductions, joint-venture interests and government entitlement. Errors can arise before billing, then persist through receivables, royalties, production-sharing calculations and financial reporting. Auditors need to establish whether reported revenue reflects contractual rights, physical volumes, transfer of control and the correct reporting period—not merely whether an invoice exists.

This intermediate course equips participants to audit oil and gas revenue from production measurement through sales settlement and financial statement disclosure. Participants examine concession, royalty-tax and production-sharing arrangements; joint operating agreements; hydrocarbon sales contracts; volume allocation; benchmark pricing; IFRS 15 and ASC 606 recognition issues; royalty calculations; receivables; and revenue-process controls. The course builds practical capability in tracing transactions, testing cut-off, recalculating invoices and settlements, assessing audit evidence, using data analytics and reporting findings.

Instruction combines focused technical briefings with industry cases based on crude oil, natural gas, LNG and petroleum-product transactions. Participants work with production reports, lifting statements, sales contracts, invoices, price formulas, royalty returns and audit working papers. Delivery is instructor-led over five days, from 08:30 to 16:30, in classroom locations in 50+ cities or live online. Participants leave with a reusable revenue audit programme, contract review template, reconciliation model and findings-reporting structure.

The course suits finance, internal audit, external audit, revenue assurance and commercial professionals who review or rely on oil and gas revenue information.

What you will be able to do

  • Interpret oil and gas contractual rights affecting revenue, royalties and government entitlement
  • Reconcile production, lifting, inventory and sales data to test revenue completeness
  • Apply IFRS 15 and ASC 606 to hydrocarbon sales and variable consideration
  • Test benchmark pricing, quality differentials, transport deductions and settlement adjustments
  • Evaluate revenue-process controls using a risk-control matrix and COSO components
  • Design risk-based audit procedures for volumes, prices, cut-off, receivables and royalties
  • Prepare audit working papers that document evidence, exceptions and conclusions
  • Draft quantified revenue audit findings with practical remediation actions

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Audit complex hydrocarbon sales transactions with greater confidence
  • Identify revenue leakage from volume, pricing and cut-off errors
  • Interpret petroleum contracts beyond standard invoice documentation
  • Produce clearer revenue audit working papers and findings
  • Contribute credibly to discussions with operators, marketers and finance teams

For your organisation

  • Earlier detection of underbilling, overbilling and unrecorded revenue
  • Better evidence for royalty, production-sharing and regulatory reviews
  • More consistent revenue audit programmes across assets and business units
  • Stronger controls over production data, sales pricing and manual journals
  • Better prioritisation of remediation for high-value revenue exposures

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can map an oil and gas revenue process and identify the assertions requiring audit evidence.

  • Upstream, midstream and LNG revenue streams from entitlement to collection
  • Production measurement chain: meters, allocation systems, tickets and custody transfer
  • Revenue risk map linking volumes, prices, rights and receivables
  • Contractual parties: operator, non-operator, transporter, marketer and government
  • Source-to-ledger data flow through production, sales and accounting systems
  • Audit assertions tailored to occurrence, completeness, accuracy, cut-off and valuation

Participants can interpret contractual clauses and convert them into specific audit criteria.

  • Concession, royalty-tax and production-sharing arrangements compared for revenue rights
  • Joint operating agreements: lifting, billing, cash calls and imbalance clauses
  • Read sales agreements for delivery points, title transfer and pricing terms
  • Identify take-or-pay, ship-or-pay and deficiency-payment revenue consequences
  • Map contractual clauses to audit criteria and documentary evidence
  • Build a contract abstract with obligations, exceptions and key controls

Participants can assess the timing and measurement of revenue recognition for hydrocarbon sales.

  • IFRS 15 five-step model applied to hydrocarbon sales contracts
  • ASC 606 comparison for performance obligations, timing and variable consideration
  • Determine control transfer using Incoterms, delivery evidence and title clauses
  • Estimate variable consideration for price adjustments, penalties and quality claims
  • Principal-versus-agent assessment for marketing, transportation and processing arrangements
  • Document revenue recognition conclusions and disclosure implications under IFRS 15

Participants can reconcile physical production and lifting data to reported sales revenue.

  • Reconcile wellhead production, pipeline nominations, terminal stocks and buyer liftings
  • Metering uncertainty, calibration records and proving reports as audit evidence
  • Apply allocation methodologies to commingled production and shared facilities
  • Investigate production imbalances between operator statements and purchaser records
  • Test cut-off around month-end liftings, linefill and in-transit volumes
  • Assess estimated volumes, shrinkage factors and measurement-data overrides

Participants can recalculate sales values and test the contractual basis of price adjustments.

  • Verify benchmark pricing against Platts assessments, formulas and pricing periods
  • Test quality differentials for API gravity, sulphur, BTU and contaminants
  • Recalculate provisional invoices, final settlements and retroactive price adjustments
  • Examine foreign-exchange clauses, currency conversion and settlement-date differences
  • Validate transport, handling and marketing deductions against contractual terms
  • Analytical procedures linking price variances to market and contract drivers

Participants can test revenue-related obligations to governments and other entitlement holders.

  • Calculate royalties using applicable rates, allowable deductions and production bases
  • Production-sharing calculations: cost oil, profit oil and government entitlement
  • Audit petroleum revenue tax inputs, ring-fencing and deductible expenditure links
  • Test royalty reporting reconciliations to production statements and payment records
  • Inspect government audit rights, remittance deadlines and dispute provisions
  • Evaluate exposure from underpayments, interest, penalties and compliance breaches

Participants can audit the completeness, accuracy and recoverability of oil and gas receivables.

  • Trace sales invoices from lifting statements through receivables and cash application
  • Confirm counterparties, balances, disputed invoices and side-agreement terms
  • Age receivables by contractual due date, dispute status and credit risk
  • Evaluate expected credit losses under IFRS 9 using counterparty evidence
  • Test credit notes, rebates, claims and post-period settlement adjustments
  • Review letters of credit, parent guarantees and collateral arrangements

Participants can evaluate revenue controls and use data tests to identify unusual transactions.

  • Map revenue-process controls using COSO components and risk-control matrices
  • Segregation-of-duties testing across nominations, invoicing, journals and master data
  • IT general controls supporting production systems, trading platforms and interfaces
  • Use data analytics to match liftings, invoices, payments and journal entries
  • Identify duplicate invoices, unusual price overrides and manual revenue journals
  • Preserve audit trails from source records to reported revenue disclosures

Participants can develop a defensible audit programme supported by appropriate evidence.

  • Set materiality and performance materiality for revenue and royalty audit risks
  • Develop risk-based audit programmes from assertions, controls and data availability
  • Design sampling approaches for high-value liftings, contracts and adjustments
  • Evaluate reliability of operator reports, third-party confirmations and system extracts
  • Prepare working papers with cross-references, exceptions and reviewer conclusions
  • Communicate control deficiencies using cause, risk, recommendation and management response

Participants can report revenue audit findings and define practical follow-up actions.

  • Quantify misstatements from volume, price, timing and entitlement exceptions
  • Prioritise findings by financial exposure, compliance impact and recurrence likelihood
  • Draft evidence-based audit observations for management, audit committees and regulators
  • Structure remediation plans with owners, milestones, controls and validation tests
  • Conduct close-out meetings that distinguish facts, judgments and unresolved matters
  • Create a 90-day revenue audit application plan for assigned responsibilities

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

What you take back to work

  1. Oil and gas revenue risk assessment template
  2. Hydrocarbon sales contract review checklist
  3. Production-to-revenue reconciliation model
  4. Revenue recognition decision worksheet
  5. Risk-based revenue audit programme
  6. Audit findings and remediation tracker

Who should attend

  • Internal Auditors — need structured procedures for testing petroleum revenue risks and controls
  • External Auditors — need industry-specific evidence approaches for oil and gas revenue assertions
  • Revenue Assurance Managers — need to detect leakage in volumes, pricing and settlement processes
  • Financial Controllers — need to support accurate revenue recognition, receivables and disclosures
  • Joint Venture Accountants — need to verify liftings, entitlements and operator billing information
  • Commercial and Marketing Analysts — need to understand audit evidence behind sales pricing and settlements

Skills and tools covered

Revenue recognition auditingProduction volume reconciliationHydrocarbon contract analysisRoyalty compliance testingRevenue control testingAudit findings reporting

Tools and standards

IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers, ASC 606 Revenue from Contracts with Customers, IFRS 9 Financial Instruments, COSO Internal Control—Integrated Framework

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short technical briefings followed by guided analysis of oil and gas contracts, lifting statements, production allocations, invoices, price formulas and royalty calculations. Participants work in groups to assess revenue risks, build reconciliations, test controls and formulate audit responses. Case material reflects crude oil, natural gas, LNG and petroleum-product transactions. Simulated audit discussions develop skills in challenging evidence, documenting exceptions and presenting findings. Individual application planning links course methods to participants’ assigned assets, contracts or audit plans.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have working knowledge of accounting entries, financial statements and standard audit concepts such as assertions, materiality and audit evidence. Familiarity with oil and gas operations, production reports, sales invoices or commercial contracts is useful but not essential. The course assumes participants can read basic contracts and perform spreadsheet-based reconciliations. Prior experience with IFRS 15, ASC 606, production-sharing agreements, specialist trading systems or data-analytics software is not required. It is not an introductory financial accounting or petroleum engineering course.

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

You should understand basic accounting, audit assertions and spreadsheet reconciliations. Familiarity with oil and gas operations is useful, but the course explains the production, lifting and settlement processes needed for audit work.

Bring a laptop if you attend in person, as some case materials involve reconciliations and audit documentation. You may also bring non-confidential examples of contracts, audit issues or revenue reports from your work.

It is designed for internal and external auditors, revenue assurance staff, controllers, joint venture accountants and commercial personnel. Participants should already work with financial, operational or contractual information rather than be entirely new to accounting.

General revenue recognition courses focus mainly on accounting standards and financial reporting conclusions. This course applies those principles to oil and gas production data, liftings, benchmark pricing, quality adjustments, royalties, production sharing and revenue controls.

Participants can use the contract abstract, reconciliation model and audit programme when reviewing a revenue cycle or planning an audit. The methods also support investigations into disputed invoices, price adjustments, production imbalances and royalty exposures.

The course runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is divided between technical instruction, contract and data cases, group audit work, simulated discussions 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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