Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is a  global standard to promote open and responsible management of oil, gas and mining resources. The Argentine Chamber of Mining Entrepreneurs supports this initiative and is part of the Multiparty Group responsible for its implementation in the country. The objective of the standard is to address key issues related to the governance of the oil, gas and mining sector.

 

The  EITI Standard  requires the disclosure of information throughout the extractive industry value chain from the point of extraction, to how revenue proceeds to the government, and to how it benefits the general public. This includes how licenses are awarded and registered, who are the beneficial owners of such operations, what are the legal and fiscal provisions, how much is produced, how much is paid, how is that income distributed, and what is the contribution to the economy, including employment.

 

The objective of the EITI is to strengthen government and business systems, contribute information to the public debate and promote understanding. In each of the implementing countries, the EITI is backed by a coalition of government, business and civil society.

 

 

 

ARGENTINA IN EITI

 

After several years of preparing the candidacy, Argentina finally entered the EITI in February 2019 and promised to guarantee the full disclosure of information throughout the value chain of the extractive industries (oil, natural gas and mining), from the the way in which exploration permits and exploitation concessions are granted up to the payments made by companies in the form of royalties, royalties, general taxes and others, and the trajectory of said revenues in governments and how they are used in the budget. In addition, the national government promised to collaborate with civil society and the extractive industries to have an informed debate on how resources are managed.

 

In Argentina, oil, natural gas, and minerals belong to the provinces because they have original control over the natural resources existing in their territories. This federal system means that the adherence of the provincial states is necessary when identifying and quantifying the income they receive, as well as other relevant information related to the extractive activities that are in their jurisdiction.

 

Given this characteristic, Argentina requested an adapted implementation of the EITI standard, dividing it into two stages: in the first stage, information will be reported and disclosed at the federal level of government and public information available from the provinces will be included. In the second cycle, the information report will be expanded to the provinces and work will be done to ensure that they voluntarily join the EITI implementation process. The participation of the provinces is essential for the success of the implementation of the second stage and therefore the multi-stakeholder group actively assumes the promotion of the adherence of the provincial governments to this initiative in pursuit of the institutional strengthening of the country.

 

Argentina's candidacy to join the initiative arose from the joint work carried out since 2016 by a multi-stakeholder group made up of representatives of the government, industry and civil society. The multi-stakeholder group was formally established in December 2018, has 13 members and has the following structure:

 

FOR THE GOVERNMENT:

 

FOR THE EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES:

 

FOR CIVIL SOCIETY: