NRGI reports boost in disclosure of oil industry government payments

The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) has published an illuminating blog post detailing a recent flurry of activity in oil companies reporting on payments to governments. They note omissions in Italian firm ENI’s disclosure on payments to China, relevant legislation that the disclosures have been made under; providing company-level analysis and links to the company reports and statements throughout. NRGI invites detailed analysis wealth of new data from a range of stakeholders: 

 ‘We are definitely at an inflection point. In addition to the ESTMA disclosures described above, over 90 companies have reported payment information under U.K. law for 2015. A similar number are reporting for 2016 (Shell’s report is one such disclosure.) In total, over USD 136 billion was paid to governments in 112 countries around the world by companies reporting under U.K. law for 2015. NRGI will detail this more fully in an upcoming report.

I encourage everyone—campaigners, investors, analysts, government official and others—to dive into these reports. The more eyes we have on them, the more likely we will see this transparency lead to empowerment of oversight actors and greater accountability.

There remains much work to be done, including ensuring these reports are more easily accessible; querying the reports with companies; improving the underlying legislation; analyzing them for insights; and using them to bring about accountability more purposefully in countries where accountability is lacking most. Please do get in touch if you would like to be involved with this work.’

We encourage our users to read the post at NRGI’s blog, and to get involved in this important work.