Oslo, 18 November 2014 - Trafigura Beheer B.V., one of the world’s leading commodity trading firms, today announced their support of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the global standard for improving transparency of revenues from natural resources. This support forms part of their new policy on disclosure of their payments to governments.
The EITI welcomed Trafigura’s commitment and called on all commodity traders to join the work towards comprehensive and practical reporting guidelines that would bring more transparency and accountability to the sector.
Jonas Moberg, Head of the EITI International Secretariat, said: “We welcome Trafigura’s support of the EITI, and more importantly Trafigura’s commitment to align its policy with the EITI Principles and transparency requirements. We hope that this will spur further progress towards improved accountability in the commodity trading industry." In practice, Trafigura’s policy means that they will disclose their payments to governments in accordance with the approach adopted by the EITI multi-stakeholder group in each implementing country. This should result in improved EITI reporting, as the government receipts can be reconciled with Trafigura’s reports.
He added: “With the increased focus on the trading of oil, gas and minerals, disclosure of payments to government has to improve. The EITI alone cannot deliver full transparency and accountability in the trading industry, but it is a good start to ensure that the citizens who need this information the most have access to it in a comprehensive manner. ”
Jeremy Weir, Trafigura Chief Executive Officer said: “This policy reflects Trafigura’s commitment to transparency and accountability, as core components of responsible trade and better-governed natural resource sectors. We believe that as a leading commodities trader we have a role in disclosing how much we pay to Governments and their NOCs, and that Governments have an important part to play in demonstrating how those proceeds have contributed towards socio-economic development. We believe that the EITI is the right mechanism for the disclosure of relevant information to citizens in a comprehensive and responsible manner.”
In many resource-rich countries, revenues from sales of oil represent a substantial source of income. The EITI requires the government and State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to disclose information about these sales. Disclosures from commodity trading companies will allow these figures to be reconciled and verified. Additional sources of information ensure more reliable data and more informed public debate.
As consequence, disclosure of the payments to governments for oil sales will reduce the risk of corruption and improve the accountability of SOEs that sell oil, gas and minerals on behalf of the government.
For more information see the EITI International Secretariat’s Briefing note on this topic, which includes examples from Iraq, Nigeria and the Republic of the Congo.
Notes to Editors
- For additional information, please see Trafigura’s press release and the Trafigura policy on payments to governments at www.trafigura.com.
- The EITI is a coalition of governments, companies, civil society groups, investors and international organisations. Learn more at www.eiti.org.
- EITI is chaired by the Rt. Hon. Clare Short. Ms Short was the UK Secretary of State for International Development (1997-2003).
- 48 countries are now implementing the EITI standard, and recognised as either EITI Compliant or EITI Candidate. See the list of countries at www.eiti.org/countries.
- Over 90 oil, gas and mining companies already support the EITI. See the list of supporting companies at www.eiti.org/supporters/companies.
Related content
