Era of Big Oil secrecy is over

Daniel Kaufmann:

Earlier this month, the EU took a decisive step towards transparency: It agreed to mandate publicly-listed European companies as well as large private firms to disclose their payments to governments for oil, gas and mining projects. This transparency is crucial in the fight for better governance of resource-rich countries. It will empower citizens with information about the amount of money their governments receive, helping them to monitor how this money is ultimately used and to deter corruption.

Opacity has long ties with corruption, and both are detrimental to growth. Our research shows that countries that control corruption and improve governance can triple their incomes per capita in the long term...

The EU rules are part of the international community’s response to the opacity challenge, and are modeled after U.S. rules the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released last August...

Major multinational oil companies have been trying to water down these requirements on both sides of the Atlantic...