Politics

Oil Industry Protests Disclosure Mandate

By Clare Foran and National Journal
A picture taken on April 7, 2011 shows Russian LUKOIL ice-resistant fixed platform LSP-1, built at the Astrakhansky Korabel shipyard, intended to drill and operate wells and collect and pre-treat reservoir content at Korchagin's oil field in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea some 180 km outside Astrakhan. The fields productivity of oil and gas condensate will peak at 2.3 million tonnes oil and 1.2 bcm gas per year.  (National Journal)

The largest trade association for the U.S. oil and gas industry is pushing back against a payments disclosure rule, Fuel Fix reports.

The American Petroleum Institute submitted a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday commenting on an SEC rulemaking pertaining to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requiring U.S. companies to report payments to foreign governments.

API says that the rule should be written so that aggregate payment totals are reported without specific companies having to identify the exact amount paid to foreign nations. The letter says that if the name of the company was tied to the specific amount paid it would put companies at a competitive disadvantage, in part, because some countries, like China, prohibit payment disclosures.

"The spirit of the law was to allow local populations to see how much the government was receiving for these resources and that's exactly what our proposals that we sent to the SEC today would do," API spokesman Carlton Carroll commented.