Because of the acquisition of Petrom by OMV, OMV has acquired a second E&P laboratory in Rumania. This leads to the fact, that both or at least one laboratory must be restructured and reengineered. Reasons for that are doubled done work, underdeveloped technical facilities and partially missing know-how. Within this thesis, two major fields where worked out concerning an E&P laboratory: Partnership options for and key success factors of an E&P laboratory. Nowadays it is important for a laboratory, that it can identify its core business very precisely. As a result, other fields of activities might be outsourced and done in cooperation with partners. Wrong cooperation directly influences the business of the laboratory or the whole company itself. The most important factors for forming a successful partnership and, the best partnership options are presented. Also a critical view is given, which shows, that partnering must be done very careful and that outsourcing should not be the main strategy of a company. The successful work of a laboratory can be directly connected to its structures and to laboratory key success factors, depending on technical and on management issues. These factors are presented within this thesis, with special regard to the management issues. A connection can be found of these two major fields. The development of a decision making flow chart, which implies both topics, can be seen as the overall result of this work.