Evidenciação de provisão para o abandono de ativo adotada pelas empresas petrolíferas

Abstract

The present paper studied the level of disclosure of the asset abandonment provision by analyzing the financial report of three companies in the oil and gas industry Petrobrás, Chevron and British Petroleum. The financial reports have been prepared according to three different accounting standards: Brazilian (CPC), the international (IFRS) and North American (USGAAP). The aim of this study was to suggest a framework to increase the quality of disclosure of the items that comprise the measurement of asset retirement obligation provision to provide a decrease in information asymmetry related to the provision of abandonment of assets. The research methodology was qualitative approach with the application of descriptive research method in the form of case study. This research examined the financial statements of the years 2006-2011 of Petrobrás, filed at the Comissão de Valores Imobiliários and at the Securities and Exchange Commission Securities, of Chevron and British Petroleum, both also filed at the Securities Exchange Commission, in order to verify compliance the level of disclosure that the accounting standards IFRS, USGAAP and CPC recommend. This study verified those companies have reached the minimum level of disclosure required, but Petrobrás (CVM) that demonstrated the reconciliation of the allowance for asset retirement only for 2010 fiscal year. On the other hand British Petroleum was the only one to provide details such as discount rate, expected cash outflow for the abandonment of the asset and the period of the economic cycle of the assets. This study also concluded there are significant discrepancies in the way information regard asset retirement obligation is disclosed among those financial reports. Thus, the structure of disclosure suggested in this work can be useful to standardize the disclosure of the information regard asset retirement obligation with the possibility of improving the quality of the accounting information and by reducing information asymmetry