The report ‘Under the Surface’ assesses payments to governments made by oil, gas and mining companies in four countries of operation.

The cases analysed in the report are: Repsol in Bolivia; Tullow Oil in Equatorial Guinea; Vedanta in India; and a joint venture between Statoil, BP and ENI (with ExxonMobil as an operator) in Angola.

“These cases show a number of significant weaknesses, both in the legislation itself and in the reporting practices of companies. This ultimately hinders achievement of the overall objective of enhancing public understanding of extractive companies’ activities and payments”...

In 2013, the EU passed new transparency and accountability legislation requiring large oil, gas, mining and logging companies that are listed and registered in the EU to disclose their revenue payments to governments around the world on a country-by-country and a project-by-project basis. As the European Commission is currently reviewing this legislation, TI EU has looked at the evidence regarding implementation and enforcement this legislation.

According to TI EU’s recommendations, the current EU legislative review is an excellent opportunity for the European Commission to clarify the requirements for companies on:

• Joint venture reporting
• Companies’ interpretation of payments categories
• Reporting of payments in kind
• Reporting on tax payments
• Identification of payments recipients