Oil and Gas Audits
Reviewing oil and gas relationships is an accepted and common business practice. This is normally incorporated as part of a company’s necessary component of prudent risk management. In today’s even more complicated environment and substantially higher costs, it is essential for management to make certain that their contractual relationships and expenditures more than ever need to receive the necessary attention they justify. Exemplary management wants to assurance and knowledge that the terms of their agreements are being monitored and controlled. They want to confirm that payments made and revenues received under the agreements are reasonably accurate. It is increasingly important to have complete confidence in the contracts and relationships that are part of the foundation of any business. Compliance assessments yield a valuable opportunity to detect control weaknesses, close gaps on future contracts and recover lost revenues. It includes evaluating whether or not the parties to a contract are abiding by their contractual obligations, whether the contracting process is working as intended and whether an arms-length business relationship exists when dealing with a lot of money.
By using the best expertise, management can be far more confident that their agreements and contracts are being administered properly and they are fully protecting their interests. This can be easily accomplished without interrupting your staff’s normal routine. Also, the objective is to become more street smart for management’s future careers and decision making, while potentially recovering more dollars from overpayments than the normal review cost. Expert reports provide management the necessary, critical insight into existing contracting and payment processes and recommendations for strengthening those processes. With an exceptional level of contractual insight, management can determine where profits are being lost to overpayments, contract misinterpretations and contractual grey areas that are always subject to interpretation. Management can know for certain whether their partners, suppliers and contractors are in compliance with the terms and the intent of the agreements. Companies normally value their relationship with your company and work hard to assure they comply with their contractual obligations; so, this can be mutually beneficial for a continued healthy relationship. The identification and documentation and recovery lost profits can enhance your bottom line. Most will quickly resolve erroneous accounting and make the necessary corrections.
Small interpretational errors can create large overpayments. Expert reviews recover lost revenues for clients and provide analytical and management reporting that helps reduce current and future losses. The usual approach and objective is designed to provide a high level of assurance that the review will result in significant profit recovery.
Since all oil and gas auditors use the same day rate, you want the most trusted, seasoned and well-trained professionals available in the entire oil and gas industry, with strong analytical skills and extensive industry expertise. You want these consultants to have held positions that give them unique insight into clients' needs. The consultants need to use state-of-the-art technology, the most advanced software, computers and procedures while keeping all of your information secure and confidential. You want the reviews to be fine-tuned to meet your specific objectives and needs, with the right dedicated resources. The best oil and gas auditors will have 30 to 40 years of valuable, accumulated experience. They fully know all of the tricks of the trade – and you already know it; there are plenty. There is too much to learn and the learning never stops.
As far as the valuable report product, you want the most experienced and seasoned expert who will take the greatest care in preparing a meaningful and professional report that clearly explains the specific errors, findings and issues identified with sufficient detail needed to facilitate timely collection. There are thousands of different, potential findings that can be identified, e.g., erroneous billings and payments, inflated prices, billing for items that are contractually covered by overhead, vendor overpayments and contractual misinterpretations that easily happen since contract language can significantly vary.