President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria recently declared that his country would implement the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), which aims to improve transparency in respect to revenues earned by countries from the development and production of mineral and petroleum resources. Greater transparency will make for better governance in these countries.

Total, which shares the objectives of the EITI, warmly welcomes President Obasanjo's announcement and will contribute to its implementation. It is foreseen that this initiative will be guided by the following principles:

• Voluntary commitment by host countries to the process;
• Sanctity of existing contracts;
• The data reported by companies will be consolidated and published by an independent authority.