The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 -^sUS Legislation enacted as a result of the Enron affair - is having a significant impact on the development and operation of Hydrocarbon Accounting Systems. The legislation is intended to improve the transparency with which any public Company registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission conducts its business. It includes requirements detailing what financial documents companies need to keep and for how long. A direct result of this is the need for full auditability of all data with a financial bearing on the Company. This paper discusses how compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley act may affect the operation of Hydrocarbon Accounting processes. Its structure is as follows: in Section 2, information about the SEC, the Sarbanes-Oxley act, and the response of businesses is given. In Section 3, the links between Hydrocarbon Accounting and the corporate balance sheet are explored. Section 4 looks at the impacts of Sarbanes-Oxley on Hydrocarbon Accounting practices and Section 5 looks at those impacts specific to the computer systems used in this area. Conclusions are drawn in Section 6.
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