OSLO – Today Norway discloses oil revenues payments by companies and launches its first report under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

The Norwegian government already has institutions to control and oversee its received tax revenues, but this marks the first time all tax revenues are published on a company-by-company basis and reconciled by an external auditor (Deloitte). The report shows that in 2008 Norway total payments reported and received was 400 489 701 000 NOK.

Doha: Publish What You Pay (PWYP), the global civil society coalition, said today that the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) needs to redouble its efforts to protect civil society activists and ensure that civil society is an equal partner in efforts to achieve transparency in natural resource revenue management.

Dear Ministers,

As strong advocates of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), we are writing to express our deep concern over Norway’s lack of visible progress towards becoming an EITI candidate country following the government’s announcement of its intentions to implement on September 27, 2007.

In the 2008 Report on Revenue Transparency of Oil and Gas Companies, Transparency International (TI) evaluates 42 leading oil and gas companies on their current policies, management systems and performance in areas relevant to revenue transparency in their upstream operations.

Statoil, the Norwegian oil company, has made an important contribution to the global effort for greater transparency of payments from the oil industry to governments, by publishing a breakdown of its tax payments to each country around the world.

Oil companies rarely disclose how much they pay to the governments of developing countries where they operate. The citizens of these countries have no reliable way of knowing how much oil revenue their government is receiving.

Dear Prime Minister,

As strong supporters of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) we are writing to you with regard to the long-term role the Norwegian Government could play in championing this important global multi-stakeholder process.

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is determined to stamp out embezzlement, but has its work cut out. When it launched in 2002 the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative aimed high. A coalition of governments, companies, civil society groups and investors, it promised member countries an improved investment climate, strengthened accountability and good governance. Those outcomes would contribute to economic stability, it said, and prevent conflict in the oil, mining and gas sectors.

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This report examines the impact of the resource curse on Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and the growing importance of the Caspian sea countries in supplying oil and natural gas to the west. The report calls for greater transparency and public oversight over the payment and receipt of natural resource revenues in light of the negative impact that corruption and revenue mismanagement had on the two countries’ development paths. The report also analyses several successful oil funds, namely in Alaska and Norway, where natural resource revenues have been used to promote economic growth and development.

The Norwegian Government has today launched a major new initiative that will see them take the lead in global efforts to improve transparency and accountability over the management of revenues from oil, gas and mining industries.