Personal tools
You are here: Home Issues Oil, gas & mining

Oil, gas & mining

Many poor countries face a resource curse: while nonrenewable resources can generate significant revenues, countries that depend on them can also suffer from higher rates of corruption, social unrest, and human rights violations.

Oxfam advocates directly with corporations, financial institutions, and governments to ensure respect for the rights of communities. We support new ideas for greater corporate social responsibility; global campaigns to create new human rights and environmental standards; and greater transparency of oil, gas, and mining revenues.

Tell Congress: No more secret payments!
A bill now in Congress would help protect poor people by making oil, gas, and mining companies open their books–but industry lobbyists are fighting it. Poor communities have a right to follow the money–and to call for a fair share for schools, health care, and jobs.
More actions
OxfamExchange Winter 2010
Ensuring Peace Of Mind?
OXFAMExchange Fall 2009
Facing Down Hunger: The global food crisis one year later
Oxfam's oil, gas, and mining program
Oxfam advocates just government policies and corporate practices in the oil, gas, and mining industries, and supports the right of communities to participate meaningfully in decisions about the use of natural resources.
OXFAMExchange Spring 2009
The power of resilience
OXFAMExchange Spring 2008
Raising a generation without fear
OXFAMExchange Winter 2008
Hard Questions about Ghana's Gold Boom
Working together to end poverty and injustice
An overview of Oxfam America and our approach to poverty relief and lasting social change.
Oxfam in West Africa
Across the vast Sahel and down through the lush rainforests of Ghana, there is a growing sense of possibility.
Oxfam in Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean
All across this diverse and beautiful territory, new faces of leadership are emerging. Women, rural communities, and small farmers are adding their voices to the political dialogue, calling on their governments: Hear us now.
OXFAMExchange Spring 2006
Challenging Injustice
Oxfam in South America
To their government officials and to the corporations who want to exploit their lands and natural resources, the indigenous and rural people of South America have a simple, yet important message: "We are here."
OXFAMExchange Fall 2002
What's in your coffee? Oxfam's coffee campaign. Plus Afghanistan, Make Trade Fair campaign, and the Hopi people's struggle for clean, safe drinking water.
More publications
International Conference on Extractive Industries Contracts
Conference Report
Mining conflicts in Peru: Condition critical
Metals, mining, and sustainable development in Central America
An assessment of benefits and costs
Ghana's Big Test
Oil's challenge to democratic development
Corporate Social Responsibility in the Mining Sector in Peru
Golden Rules
Around the world, large-scale metals mining takes an enormous toll on the health of the environment and communities. Gold mining, in particular, is one of the dirtiest industries in the world.
Hidden Treasure?
In search of Mali's gold-mining revenues
Tarnished Gold
Mining and the unmet promise of development
Transparency Begins at Home
An assessment of United States revenue transparency and extractive industries transparency initiative requirements
Dirty Metals
Mining, Communities, and the Environment
Tarnished Legacy
A Social and Environmental Analysis of Mali's Syama Goldmine
Investing in Destruction: Glamis Gold
Poverty Reduction or Poverty Exacerbation?
World Bank Group Support for Extractive Industries in Africa
Digging to Development?
A Historical Look at Mining and Economic Development
Extractive Sectors and the Poor
A Proposed Mine in Tambogrande, Peru: An Alternative Look
More research
Oxfam America Organizing Guide
Tips for taking action in your community
Oxfam America House Party Guide
Tools for hosting a high-impact event
Take Action: Protect Community Rights and Resources
Over 60 percent of the world's poorest people live in countries rich in natural resources—but they rarely share in the wealth. Too often, poor communities have no say in the extraction of resources from their land and receive little information about these projects.
More tools for activists
Water is life
High in the cloud forest of Piura, local communities understand the importance of the area's water sources and medicinal plants. They warn the proposed Rio Blanco copper mine would be catastrophic to the fragile and pristine environment here.
Lifeblood at risk
In northern Peru, small-scale farmers can earn more by growing organic products. They say the rush to mine for copper in the mountains above their farms would contaminate the region and put their futures at risk.
Standing up for justice
In 2005, thousands of unarmed Peruvians peacefully protested against the Rio Blanco Copper Mine for illegally exploring for minerals on community land without their consent. One local resident, Cleofé Neyra, describes how she and 27 others were tortured and their struggle to defend their land and human rights.
Copper in the Clouds
In northern Peru, local governments, community leaders, and farmers say the proposed Rio Blanco Copper Mine would be devastating to local communities. In an area where drinking water is already scarce, pollution from the mine would be an environmental disaster for the entire region.
Follow the Money
Standing at the pump, watching the numbers tick away, do you ever wonder where the money goes? You're not alone: People on the other end of the pipeline are wondering too. While we feel the pinch in our pockets, citizens of oil-producing countries are often not seeing the profits.
Open the Books on Corruption
From Oxfam America partner Publish What You Pay, calling for transparency in the oil, gas and mining industries and asking Congress to introduce the Extractive Industries Transparency Disclosure Act.
Is mining right for Central America?
Farmers and indigenous people debate the costs and benefits of mining.
Our Land, Our Life
The struggle of Carrie and Mary Dann, two Western Shoshone elders, to address the threat mining development poses to the sacred and environmentally sensitive lands of Crescent Valley, Nevada.
More multimedia

Features Subscribe | View All

New potential for conflict in Peru’s Amazon

New potential for conflict in Peru’s Amazon

Madre de Dios could be next flashpoint in ongoing confrontation between indigenous communities and foreign oil, gas, and mining companies.

Read more

Environmental activists murdered in El Salvador

Environmental activists murdered in El Salvador

Pregnant active member of the Cabañas Environmental Committee shot while carrying her two-year-old son

Read more

Members of Ghana’s Parliament concerned about use of new oil money

Members of Ghana’s Parliament concerned about use of new oil money

Communiqué calling for urgent steps to ensure new wealth is managed transparently and responsibly.

Read more

The struggle continues in Ghana

The struggle continues in Ghana

Members of a farmers’ group continue their long struggle to claim their rights in court, but one farmer loses everything in a surprise legal move.

Read more

British High Court freezes mine company assets

British High Court freezes mine company assets

Monterrico Metals will be required to compensate injured people and their communities if courts in the UK find the company responsible for human rights violations.

Read more

International Conference on Extractive Industries Contracts

International Conference on Extractive Industries Contracts

September 23, 2009, Washington, DC. House of Sweden, Alfred Nobel Hall, 2900 K Street NW 20007 (30th and K St. NW).

Read more

Following the money in Latin America

Following the money in Latin America

Where revenue from mining and oil comes from—and where it goes—can be hard to determine in Latin America.

Read more

"Africa's future is up to Africans"

"Africa's future is up to Africans"

President Obama's first speech in sub-Saharan Africa hits important points on good governance, responsible use of natural resources, trade, and defeating poverty.

Read more

New coalition to monitor resource revenues in Cambodia

New coalition to monitor resource revenues in Cambodia

Oil and mineral wealth could change the country, and a new watchdog intends to ensure revenues are well spent, and reduce poverty.

Read more

» More stories «
Document Actions