OT30320 - Capital Gains

Valuation of Oil Assets (including shares). Third Party Information and Information Sources.

Where appropriate, assumptions and information used in arriving at a submitted valuation should be sourced from or supported by third party information. This may not always be possible and inspectors should do what they need to satisfy themselves that submitted facts, figures and assumptions are accurate and robust.

Where third party information is otherwise available to the inspector, this should be considered when examining the submitted value, and in particular to test the accuracy of factual information and assumptions used in arriving at the value. Inspectors should remember that the value is the price which would be paid by a willing buyer to a willing seller, and not necessarily an indicative value which will not have taken account of the parties own specific and personal requirements, or the balance which must be struck between these.

Established sources of information include the following:

• Wood MacKenzie North Sea Service to which OTO subscribes. Wood MacKenzie also covers other oil provinces and a company may include information from these in an application, but generally OTO does not hold this information;
• The Oil & Gas Directorate at the DTI, including published DTI material on the North Sea;
• The US Government Energy Information Administration, via its website (www.eia.doe.gov) has a significant amount of information in the form of country overviews, and often contains field and area specific information;
• Worldwide Web: host country and oil company websites can include similar overviews, which may also be useful.