Launch: Norway's Oil Minister Terje Riis-Johansen
Norway's oil cash an open book
Norway this morning became the first western nation to publish a comprehensive report on payments made by oil companies to the government under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
The initiative sets up a worldwide standard for transparency in oil, gas and mining by pushing companies to disclose what they pay in taxes and royalties to governments, and for governments to disclose the receipt of such payments.
The Norwegian report, which covers payments made in 2008, was welcomed by Norwegian Oil Minister Terje Riis-Johansen, who said it bolstered Norwegian transparency standards.
At the report's launch this morning, EITI secretariat head Jonas Moberg said: "This is a concrete and practical method of ensuring transparency - we are aiming for meaningful openness."
He added: “The fact that Norway has now published its own revenue data in an EITI report is a milestone event.
"It sends a clear signal to other governments currently considering implementing the EITI, that all resource extracting countries can improve their transparency standards.”
Statoil's Hans Aasmund Frisak said that the EITI - which is a voluntary mechanism - would become stronger as more countries signed up to it.
He admitted that implementing routines and procedures to ensure EITI compliance within the company had been time-consuming and relatively expensive, but added: "The costs and inconvenience will drop once compliance becomes routine.
"Statoil believes that the positive elements of the EITI more than outweigh the initial difficulties that setting it up within the company entail."
Meanwhile, Atle Sommerfeldt, the secretary-general for Norwegian development organisation Kirkens Nodhjelp, took a broader view of the move, saying that transparency of the type the EITI aims to encourage will also help foster democracy in developing economies.
Although the Norwegian government already publishes details of most of the tax revenues it receives, today's report marks the first time all those revenues have been made public, in one report, on a company-by-company basis, reconciled with what the companies state they have paid.
The report covers all tax and fees paid to Oslo by companies operating in the country, as well as all payments the government received.
Auditors Deloitte compiled and reconciled the data to comply with EITI standards.
EITI, a global transparency initiative which set up its Oslo base in 2007, describes itself as a coalition of civil society groups, companies, governments, international organisations and investors focused on good governance in resource-rich countries.
Thirty countries are currently implementing the EITI, with Iraq being the latest country to sign up for the initiative.
Although 18 EITI reports have already been made public, Norway's is the first from a major western nation and Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development member.