What is PWYP’s ask?

PWYP calls on multi-national, private and state-owned extractive companies to disclose all types of payments (royalties, taxes, bonuses etc) made to governments for every country of operation in their annual financial accounts, and to disclose to which level of government the payments are made.

What terms describe different companies operating in the extractive sector?

International oil companies (IOCc) refer to international corporations, for example ExxonMobil, BP and Royal Dutch/Shell.

National oil companies (NOCs), often called state-owned companies (SOCs), refer to entities fully or majority owned by governments, set up to undertake commercial or business activities on behalf of the government, for example Petrobras, Gazprom, Aramco and Qatar Oil.

Some national oil companies operate solely within their domestic borders while others also operate internationally.

Why does PWYP focus on companies?

Oil, mining and gas are critically important economic sectors in about 60 developing or transition countries. Oil and other commodities are fetching record-high prices, and yet the people living in these countries rarely benefit. Amongst the 3.5 billion people in these countries, some 1.5 billion live on less than US$2 per day and constitute over two-thirds of the world’s poorest people.

Mining, gas and oil companies cannot nor should they control how governments spend taxes, royalties and fees. But they do have a responsibility to disclose the payments they make so citizens can hold their governments accountable with their resources. Companies that fail to do so are complicit in the disempowerment of the people of the countries to which the resources belong. Natural resources are held in trust by the state for the citizens of a country. Those citizens have a clear right to information about the management of revenues associated.

Through disclosure of payments, companies have an opportunity to show their economic contribution to society, and increase the likelihood that the revenues they pay to governments will be used for sustainable development – which creates a stable business environment – rather than being wasted or diverted by corruption, which exacerbates social divisions and can lead to weak and unstable states and conflict.

For more information please contact Diarmid O’Sullivan from Global Witness or Ian Gary from Oxfam America.