Awareness of the problem has spurred calls for everyone involved in the oil and gas industry to take steps to ensure that production does not come at the expense of the people living in producing regions. Today, clarifying the relationships between host countries and the extractive industry is a priority to ensure fair management of oil revenues.

Total is committed to strict transparency and participates actively in intergovernmental initiatives and dialogue on this issue. We support the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to promote the cause.

Our position and commitments

As Thierry Desmarest wrote in an article published in Rapport Moral sur l'Argent dans le Monde 2006 [A Global Moral Review of Money]: “Transparency is in Total's interest. […] Generating over 60% of its oil and gas production in non-OECD countries and as the leading multinational industry operator in Africa, Total is very directly concerned by these issues, which represent substantial financial flows. […] Total's operations must be effectively integrated into the local environment. Our commitment to financial transparency can help make the integration process a success. It is therefore our duty to do everything we can to help authorities who want to implement a transparency program, to share with them our experience and provide them with technical information, and to cooperate fully with local agencies and outside experts, whether representatives of international financial institutions or of audit firms responsible for checking, comparing and consolidating data.”

Total joined the EITI on its creation in 2002, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, known as the Johannesburg summit. Total has always backed this initiative and continues to demonstrate the Group's strong commitment, for example by the presence of Jean-François Lassalle, serving on the EITI Board from September 2007 through March 2011.

Implementation

Promoting financial transparency to host countries

The principle of sovereignty is just as fundamental as the principle of financial transparency, which means that transparency cannot be achieved without the voluntary commitment of governments. While respecting this principle, we believe that we have to encourage host countries to move forward with EITI implementation. We support and assist them throughout the process by:

• Fostering dialogue between our managers and representatives of government, civil society and the EITI.
• Participating in EITI work and organizations.
• Promoting the EITI initiative at conferences and in articles.
• Providing resources and recommendations based on our experience.

Monitoring

Detailed, public information through country reports

As part of our commitment, we publish detailed reports on a number of host countries — Angola, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Indonesia, Nigeria, Norway and United-Kingdom. These country briefs provide information on our exploration and production operations in these countries, including details about our acreage, contract types, local subsidiaries, and the taxes we pay to governments.

We also publish information each year about our oil and gas exploration and production activities, broken down by country, in our Factbook.

Recent achievements

This information is collected for purpose of Communication on Progress in line with our UN Global Compact report.

• The Total in Cameroon, Total in Nigeria, Total in Gabon, Total in Angola and Total in Norway reports have been updated.
• The Total in UK, Total in Indonesia, Total in Congo report have been published
• These eight countries accounted for 57% of our production in 2010.
  
  

(1) The Board comprises 20 permanent members representing implementing countries, supporting countries, industry, investment companies and civil society organizations.