A joint interest audit, sometimes referred to as an JIB audit, COPAS audit, or expense audit, is a review of the charges and credits on the joint interest billings (JIB) to a non-operator for its working interest share of a venture’s costs to determine if the charges and credits are in compliance with the provisions of the governing agreements, many times the Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) and attached Accounting Procedure (Exhibit C); the audit is usually performed by one or more non-operators or a contract firm, such as Martindale, on a non-operator’s behalf.
The reasons for conducting a joint interest audit vary, but ultimately, it’s important to consider a firms experience and expertise for your joint interest audits. It is a highly-specialized service and Martindale has the experience and expertise that is unmatched in the industry.
Our audit group has audit and consulting expertise in nearly all aspects of oil and gas contracts.
Operational and accounting dynamics can vary greatly among the many domestic basins and shale plays. Over the course of thousands of audits, our team has developed a deep understanding of operations ranging from a single-well vertical to the complex development and operation of thousand-well shale developments. In addition, we have an advanced understanding of the wide variety of agreements in effect, from the most basic model forms to custom and unique complex agreements with new and unique provisions.
An effective offshore or deepwater effective audit is predicated on being able to understand the operational and accounting dynamics of boats and helicopters, labor allocations, rig moves, and shorebase allocations, production and processing arrangements; the Martindale team has that requisite understanding.
Matt Pilkington