Financial and Business Resources for Oilfield Services Companies

This list saves you time in muddling through the many oil and gas industry, business and financing resources. Rather than being an all-inclusive list, this provides reliable resources that don't have the garbage you find on some of the spam sites.

Oil and Gas Industry Resources

• Business Exchange: Oil and Gas provides news about exploration and production of oil and gas.
• The Oil Drum has many articles and resources on energy.
• U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Natural Gas provides unbiased energy information, data, analysis and projections.
• U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Oil and Gas page. This includes assessments, data, reserve growth, economics and regional studies. It also has a toolbox that lets you search a database of publication, get information on Geospatial Information Systems, EnergyVision map and National Coal Resources Data System (NCRDS) database. USGS has a section that covers unconventional oil and gas.
• World-Newspapers Oil & Gas Magazines lists business magazines for the oil and gas industry providing a summary of each one and linking to their websites. It's a good list as it contains every oil and gas publication we know about.

Business and Financing Templates

• Business Owner's Toolkit offers tools, templates, checklists and forms sorted by categories, which includes business finance. Center for Business Planning has an excellent example of a balance sheet statement and cash flow statement example. I like these because you can click the line items to see an explanation.
• .docstoc is a website for documents and resources for small businesses and professionals. The link will take you to business resources. You can search for documents. They have cash flow statements, balance sheets, bookkeeping and more.
• Financial Functions and Formulas in Excel explains all the built-in financial functions and formulas. Click around the site and you'll find more free resources including financial templates.
• Excel spreadsheets is a collection of spreadsheets from many resources put together by Matt H. Evans, CPA.
• Microsoft offers many free financial and business templates, including statement of cash flows and 12-month cash flow statement template, both work with Excel.
• SCORE has a section for templates and tools ranging from accounting and budget to business planning and cash flow management.

Small Business Publications and Resources

• All Business provides tools and resources for growing and managing your small business.
• Bloomberg Businessweek has a small business section.
• Fox Small Business Center covers everything from starting a business and financing to marketing and technology.
• Inc. Money and Finance has articles as well as accounting, budgets, taxes and bookkeeping basics.
• IRS small business and self-employed tax center and small business resources.
• National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is a business association that offers many business resources.
• SCORE is a nonprofit dedicated to helping and educating small businesses owners and entrepreneurs. They have mentors, local chapters, online workshops, templates and more.
• Small Business Trends offers information, news and advice of interest to small businesses.
• SmartBrief publications and news for businesses. I recommend SmartBrief on Small Business.

What other resources do you rely on for business, financing and oilfield services news?