field as required. When successful, the company is permitted to use the money from produced oil to recover capital and operational expenditures, known as "cost oil". The remaining money is known as "profit oil", and is split between the government and the company. In most of the production sharing agreements, changes in international oil prices or production rate affect the company's share of production.

Production sharing agreements can be beneficial to governments of countries that lack the expertise and/or capital to develop their