The 2008 Report on Revenue Transparency of Oil and Gas Companies

Transparency International released a 82-pages investigation called "The 2008 Report on Revenue Transparency of Oil and Gas Companies", which 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.

Revenue transparency in the report includes three areas of corporate action where disclosure can contribute to improved accountability in the management of extractive revenues: payments to host governments, operations and corporate anti-corruption programmes.

Recommendations based on the key findings of the report are:

* Oil and gas companies should proactively report in all areas relevant to revenue transparency on a county-by-country basis.

* Home governments and appropriate regulatory agencies should urgently consider introducing mandatory revenue transparency reporting for the operations of companies at home and abroad.

* Governments from oil and gas producing countries should urgently introduce regulations that require all companies operating in their territories to make public all information relevant to revenue transparency.

* Regulatory agencies and companies should improve the accessibility, comprehensiveness and comparability of reporting on all areas of revenue transparency by adopting a uniform global reporting standard.