Tullow Oil Sets New Standard for Transparency

LONDON – Tullow Oil PLC has today set a new standard for transparent disclosure of payments to governments, becoming the world’s first extractive company to publish details of payments, on a project-by-project basis, in all countries where they are made.

This voluntary commitment to transparency stands in stark contrast to the actions of some big oil companies in the American Petroleum Institute (API), which has lobbied and litigated in a misguided attempt to weaken and delay implementation of a US law mandating oil, gas and mining companies to publish what they pay governments.

Welcoming Tullow Oil’s publication of project-by-project payments in its annual report, Alan Hudson, Policy Director for Transparency at the ONE Campaign, said:

“Tullow Oil is leading the way, with a clear commitment to transparency that will empower citizens and better enable them to hold their governments to account for the use of natural resource wealth.

They have not waited until they are compelled by law to publish what they pay governments, but have taken responsible action that will benefit some of the poorest people in the world as well as the company and its investors.

Tullow’s desire to publish project level payments to governments proves that there is no practical or commercial reason for extractives companies not to be forthcoming about the value of their global transactions.

It also demonstrates that Tullow – along with an increasing number of companies – recognise that publishing information about their contribution to government revenues can help to make them more welcome in the communities where they operate.

This should be a wake-up call for other major oil companies to choose to be part of the solution, rather than risk being complicit to the corruption possible when payments remain secret.”

ONE, along with our partners in the Publish What You Pay coalition, has been campaigning for transparency of payments made to governments in the extractives sector, so citizens can know what their oil, gas and minerals were sold for and follow the money to ensure that their governments use those revenues responsibly.

ONE is calling for:

• API members to dissociate themselves from that organization’s effort to weaken a groundbreaking U.S. transparency law
• The Securities and Exchange Commission to reissue a robust rule that requires project-level payment disclosure to implement legislation that was passed in 2010
• European Union member states to act swiftly to transpose EU mandatory disclosure regulations for the extractive sectors that require project-level disclosure