News and resources
Explore our publications on a wide range of topics, to find the powerful facts, stories and approaches that underpin our work to make the extractive industry more open, accountable and participatory.
Oil and gas drama in Lebanese Parliamentary workshop unearths three underlying issues in sector
On August 23, drama and havoc broke out in a workshop hosted by the Lebanese Parliament’s energy committee. Accusations of lack of coordination and transparency between Mohammad Qabani, head of the parliamentary energy committee, and members of the Lebanese Petroleum Administration (LPA) quickly deteriorated and led to the LPA’s withdrawal from the meeting. While a […]
Breaking the Norm: A wake-up call for Lebanese Civil Society
Mistrust, anger, accusations, secrecy, and frustration are but some of the vocabulary that civil society in Lebanon should feel pretty comfortable using when asked to describe the prenatal condition of its oil and gas sector. Amidst the bickering of those entrusted with overseeing the smooth running of the nascent sector, the Lebanese public stands on […]
Lebanon oil and gas political deal: LOGI demands clarifications and transparency
When conversations are held behind closed doors, especially in Lebanon, suspicion heightens. In July and, reportedly, again in August 2016 Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri met with Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil to smooth tensions and disagreement over how Lebanon’s oil and gas sector should move forward. By some accounts a “deal” was reached, yet […]
With Mandatory Disclosures, More Open, Granular Oil Price Data
This blog was also posted on the Natural Resource Governance Institute website and the Open Oil website. It was written by David Mihalyi and Anton Rühling. Many oil-rich countries’ governments reap huge and notoriously opaqueproduction revenues. In the past, transparency initiatives were limited to exposing tax payments. However, EITI reports and company disclosures are exposing […]
Vote for our sessions at the OGP Summit
Join us in putting transparency in the extractives on the OGP Summit’s agenda by voting for the three PWYP sessions below! Oil, gas and mining injustices – stories from the underground Civic space restrictions and activism on natural resource governance Space for civil society is closing around the world. In resource-rich countries, activists work in […]
The resource curse of indigenous peoples
How the transparency agenda could reverse unjust exploitation of indigenous territories Ivan Aribalov is an Evenki reindeer herder who lives on the vast steppes of the Sakha Republic in Siberia. His grandfather herded 14,000 domesticated reindeer, which he bred for clothes and food – a job their family have been doing for generations. When the […]
Indigenous communities and their right to self-determination
Latin America and the Caribbean have a great diversity of indigenous peoples, with almost 600 peoples representing 12.8% of the general population and even 40% of the population in rural areas. In this same region, there’s also been an intense development of oil, gas and mining activities – especially in the last three decades – […]
Extended country-by-country reporting. The 3-minute version.
This briefing from PWYP Norway explains what extended country-by-country reporting is and why it is necessary. It also explains how the reporting proposal is tailored to the US Dodd-Frank legislation and draft legislation in the EU, as well as customised production companies’ existing consolidation processes, and thus will be easy and inexpensive to implement. Written […]
An extended country-by-country reporting standard. A policy proposal to the EU. Volume 2
• Natural resources have the largest value creation potential to mobilize tax revenue, but profit often ends up elsewhere • Today, the Extractive Industries can transfer significant profits out of the source country before it’s get taxed • One simple policy proposal, aligned with US and EU regulation, will give investors and constituents the instrument […]
Transparency Agreement – A Tool for Multinational Transactions
• Tax administrations do not have access to the entire document trail within multinational companies today • The Transparency Agreement can change this, on a sampling basis, so that tax administrations obtain the insight they need • The Transparency Agreement can be used by individual countries, or by groups of countries unilaterally Written by: Frian […]
Downstream pollution of upstream numbers
Because of downstream numbers in Statoil’s upstream country-by-country report the report is not transparent. Reporting only the purchase of goods and services, and not all costs, creates the illusion that profits from the extraction activities (upstream) are higher than they actually were. Statoil’s report is so misleading that Statoil should republish with correct numbers for […]
Ignoring the elephant in the room? Why financial transparency is necessary to finance development
Sustainable development goals are wishful thinking unless we finance them. Financial transparency and taxes are the keys to finance development. Did you know that one mechanism that can fight financial secrecy already exists? It is low cost, effective, and targeted to use. It will show where the money is built up. The only thing missing […]