WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of the Interior today launched a new data portal that raises the bar on transparency of natural resource revenue by offering the public a one-stop shop to access revenues paid for developing energy and mineral resources on public lands and waters at the company and commodity level for the first time.
The interactive pilot data portal is part of the U.S. implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (USEITI) – a global, voluntary partnership to strengthen the accountability of natural resource revenue reporting and build public trust for the governance of these vital activities. In March 2014, the United States was the first G7 country to achieve Candidate Country status and become an EITI implementing country.
“This interactive data portal offers a wealth of information to the public in a comprehensive and accessible fashion and is another step in our efforts to reform and modernize royalty revenue management by the Department,” said Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. “This new tool provides clarity and transparency on the revenues generated by energy development on public lands and waters – a significant source of financial support for local communities, states, tribes and the nation – and the Department’s implementation of USEITI upholds President Obama’s commitment to the principles of open government.”
The pilot data portal went live today during a meeting of the USEITI Multi-Stakeholder Group, a body comprised of representatives from government, industry and civil society that oversees the design and implementation of USEITI efforts. The pilot data portal was developed jointly by Interior and the General Services Administration 18F program. When fully developed, the data portal will include information on more than 550 companies that meet the minimum payment threshold determined by the USEITI Multi-Stakeholder Group, which is currently set at $100,000 per year. The data portal can be accessed at: http://useiti.doi.gov/
Information currently available on the pilot data portal was provided by the Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR), which collects and disburses revenues from energy production on Federal onshore and offshore lands, and on American Indian lands. ONRR makes disbursements on a monthly basis to appropriate federal, state and American Indian accounts from the royalties, rents and bonuses it collects from energy and mineral companies. Royalty revenue is often reported by the fiscal year, but the new interactive data portal will include revenue data based on a calendar year, which will help provide consistency with international and industry reporting.
As the work on USEITI progresses in the coming years, the pilot data portal will be expanded and enhanced to provide even greater levels of data and information from other Department bureaus and offices involved in energy production on Federal lands.
In September 2010, President Obama challenged the members of the United Nations General Assembly to make all governments more open. Spearheaded by the United States and Brazil, groups of governments and civil society organizations around the world formed the Open Government Partnership. In September 2011, President Obama announced the U.S. commitment to domestic implementation of EITI, a key element of the U.S. Open Government Partnership commitments, and soon after appointed the Secretary of the Interior to lead U.S. implementation.
Across the globe, 48 countries are now working actively to implement this initiative and improve the governance of their oil, gas and mining resources.
Under EITI, participating governments work hand-in-hand with company and civil society representatives to produce reports that help citizens understand how the government manages its extractive sectors. The reports include parallel public disclosures by both the government and industry of the payments that companies make to the government for oil, gas and mining resource development. An Independent Administrator will reconcile the two data sets to produce annual reports beginning in December 2015. ####
