Secret world of oil and mining giants

[merrill]

GLOBAL: Revealed: Secret world of global oil and mining giants

by Nick Mathiason, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
September 19th, 2011

Ten of the world’s most powerful oil, gas and mining companies own a staggering 6,038 subsidiaries with over a third located in ‘secrecy jurisdictions’.

As a growing number of international think-tanks and campaign groups demand action to prevent an estimated $1 trillion flooding out of developing, but resource-rich countries, attention is focusing on states like Delaware in the US and the Netherlands.

Defined as secrecy jurisdictions, these are places where there are few requirements for companies to publish accounts and beneficial ownership details among a host of other key disclosures, which as a result can be kept hidden from public view.

Trawling annual reports and stock exchange filings of companies such as BP, Glencore and ExxonMobil, a five month investigation by Publish What You Pay Norway (PWYPN) found that:

CorpWatch*:*GLOBAL: Revealed: Secret world of global oil and mining giants

 

[merrill]

The disclosure of the enormous scale of the $1.8 trillion extractive industry’s reliance on opaque locations comes as pressure mounts on US and EU policymakers to come up with so-called Country-by-Country Reporting (CBCR) measures to counter corruption and aggressive tax avoidance.

This would force companies to reveal key financial information – revenues, profits, taxes paid and reserved used – in every country where they do business. Currently EI giants ‘consolidate’ this information in one set of accounts. This makes it impossible for citizens in resource rich countries to get an accurate picture of how much oil, gas or minerals is extracted, how much is left and what kind of deal their country has struck for them.

In America, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently deciding how to adopt the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) that forces all US listed companies to report detailed payments to any state it operates on a project-by-project basis.

CorpWatch*:*GLOBAL: Revealed: Secret world of global oil and mining giants

 

[Trajan]

do they have a secret handshake? or a Hi sign?

and, if its so secret how the hell do they know about it? theres a leak somewhere..

 

[merrill]

do they have a secret handshake? or a Hi sign?

and, if its so secret how the hell do they know about it? theres a leak somewhere..

Call it investigative journalism ...... an endangered species.