Promote transparency: End the secret payments in oil and mining industries

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Bill included a groundbreaking provision which requires that all oil, gas, and mining companies registered under the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) be transparent about payments made to governments around the world. Oil and gas companies--including Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Exxon--have been fighting implementation of the law by the SEC and may even sue the SEC to keep the information secret.

Tell oil companies to stop fighting transparency!
Don’t let oil companies keep hiding.

We need a new global standard

Every year mining and oil deals transfer billions to governments, but few people really know how much companies pay or how the money is spent. There are now more than 1.5 billion people living on less than $2 a day in poor countries that are nevertheless rich in natural resources, and they want to know: Where does the money go?

The transparency requirements in Dodd-Frank represent a new global standard that will help give citizens in countries producing oil, gas, and minerals information they can use to demand accountability from their own government. It will shine a light on billions in payments by many of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, and 8 of the 10 ten largest mining companies in the world.

After Congress passed the law and President Obama signed it, the SEC then began to write a new rule to comply with the law. Congress required the SEC to finish by April 2011, but the final rules are long delayed. Oil companies such as Chevron, Exxon, Shell, and others have been pressuring commissioners at the SEC to issue a weak final rule. In January, their industry lobbyists – the American Petroleum Institute – threatened the SEC with a lawsuit unless the agency issues a new proposed rule that will allow them to keep making their secret payments.

We need your help: Join us in calling on oil and mining companies to respect the will of Congress and the American people: Don't stand in the way of strong rules that will promote transparency and democracy over secrecy and corruption.

As part of the campaign to promote financial transparency, Oxfam America ran an advertisement in the print copy of the Wall Street Journal on February 14^th, and is running on-line, animated banner ads in a number of web sites through the 25th of February 2012.

What is Chevron's secret? Oxfam is calling on Chevron and other major oil, gas, and mining companies to support new rules requiring them to make public the payments they make to governments for access to natural resources. PHOTO: Scott Dalton/Oxfam America.