The use of oil extraction rate (OER)as a tool to measure performance has created a lot of problems for the estates and mills. This is because OER on its own does not tell us where the problem is. Whenever OER is low, the estates point their fingers at the mills and vice versa. In reality, OER is in ‘no man’s land’ and both parties do not want to be held responsible for something that is not within their control. Such ‘finger-pointing’ will continue as long as OER is looked at in isolation without making any cross reference to oil losses. This article proposes the incorporation of ‘oil losses’ into the OER equation to complement the existing method of assessing estate and mill performances. Once the fresh fruit bunches (FFB) are weighed in, the mill must be held responsible for all oil losses within the perimeters of the mill. The estate, on the other hand,takes ownership of ‘total oil’, which is ‘OER plus oil losses’. For the system to work, ‘all areas’ of oil losses must be quantified and subjected to regular independent checks. The focus is on oil as the same can be drawn up for kernels.