ChevronTexaco
addresses transparency initiative
Posted: 18 June 2003
Speaking at the Multistakeholder Conference of the Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative in London, Sam Laidlaw, ChevronTexaco Executive
Vice President of Business Development, outlined criteria that are
necessary to achieve “meaningful and achievable” progress
in the challenge of establishing greater transparency in the accounting
for and management of revenues generated by oil, gas and mining
extraction.
In addressing the conference, Laidlaw said, “There have been
many transparency ‘change initiatives’ put forward over
the past few years, and a constant message from our company has
been that for any of these initiatives to be meaningful and achievable,
they must meet three fundamental criteria.
“Firstly, any transparency process must honor the sanctity
of contracts, because any actions or initiatives that would undercut
this most fundamental building block of global commerce would also
fatally undermine economic growth, social development and prosperity.
“Secondly, this needs to continue as an inclusive process,
without a unilateral focus on companies. We have to acknowledge
that the fundamental issue is the need to balance both sides of
the oil, gas and mining revenue ledger sheet: the payments by companies
into the government treasuries, against an accounting of receipts
of those funds by the various components of that government. By
the same token, host government participation in the process is
essential. We cannot — and we will not — act unilaterally
without the full consent and participation of our partners in government.
“Thirdly, the process as we move forward must remain voluntary.
This ensures a level playing field, since market-oriented mandatory
‘fixes’ applied to public companies often won’t
affect many of the world’s largest oil players. At the same
time, we should be mindful of past lessons that attempting to dictate
to governments how to behave is often neither particularly productive
nor reflective of unique cultural differences.”
ChevronTexaco is the second largest U.S.-based energy company and
the fifth largest publicly traded integrated oil and gas company
in the world, based on market capitalization.
Headquartered in San Ramon, Calif., the company is involved in
every aspect of the energy industry, including exploration, production,
refining, equity gas marketing and transportation, power generation
and energy services.
For more information see www.chevrontexaco.com.
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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