Financial Transparency Coalition

LONDON - The European Commission took a vital step on Tuesday towards helping millions of people in poor countries to benefit from their natural resources by proposing legislation requiring EU-based oil, gas, mining and timber companies to publicly disclose their payments to governments for each project that they invest in around the world.

WASHINGTON, DC – Global Witness is calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) not to cave in to industry pressure and to issue effective regulations to combat the trade in conflict minerals. The call comes on the day of a crucial SEC roundtable and in the face of aggressive industry lobbying aimed at making the new rules weak and ineffective.

LONDON/MONROVIA – Far-reaching reforms of Liberia’s oil sector are urgently needed if its population is to benefit from future oil discoveries, says a report released today by Global Witness (1) and the Liberian Oil and Gas Initiative (LOGI) (2). As the country heads to the polls in October, and with major oil companies such as US giant Chevron trying to find oil in Liberia, these reforms must be a priority for any new government.

International oil companies such as the U.S. giant Chevron are beginning exploration off of Liberia’s coastline. However, this new research by Global Witness and Liberian Oil and Gas Initiative (LOGI) 1 suggests that while Liberia has come a long way from the devastating set of resource-financed civil wars that claimed the lives of 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003, serious governance problems persist, and the warning signs for the emerging oil sector are stark.