Comparative Analysis Of Statement Of Accounting Standard, International Financial Reporting Standard And Usa Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) On Up Stream Operations.

This paper examines the gaps that exist between the accounting standard issued by International Accounting Standard Board: International Financial Reporting Standard 6 (Exploration For and evaluation of Mineral resources) and Nigeria Accounting Standard Board: Statement of accounting Standard 14 (Accounting in The Petroleum Industry-Upstream Activities) The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in pursuit of it objective to help preparers of financial statements, throughout the world, produce and present high quality, transparent and comparable financial information have made great efforts in ensuring that national accounting standards converge to the international standards. In complying with this move, Nigerian publicly listed companies and significant public interest entities are required to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2012. All other public interest entities will adopt IFRS in 2013. In doing this, a comparative study of the two standards was carried out and benchmark with US GAAP. It was discovered that gaps with wide reaching implications existed between the two standards. It was also found too that Statement of accounting Standard 14 has much similarity with US GAAP. It is recommended that there should be a comprehensive review of the current International Financial Reporting Standard 6 (Exploration For and evaluation of Mineral resources) to accommodate the provisions of SAS 14 and US GAAP to make the convergence acceptable.