The treatment of joint costs, which has troubled the secto r fo r decades, is an integral part of any study of accounting in the petroleum industry.

Taher treats joint costs a nd the problem of ",transfer prices", fr om one division of an international petroleum o r ganization to another as an essential element in determining to the revenues to be assigned to each.

He also discusses the chemistry of hydrocarbons in o r der to supply the firm, factual foundation on the basis of which he can then erect a fo r mal system of cost allocation.