Country Experience with EITI – Part 1

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

Twenty-seven countries are at various stages of implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). One of the earliest implementers, Nigeria, estimates that EITI helped increase petroleum revenues to the government by US$ 1 billion in 2004 and 2005. This note reviews the EITI implementation and related experience of some countries, focusing primarily on actions taken [...]

Country Experience with Petroleum Revenue Funds – Part 1

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Norway, Alaska, and Alberta have been operating petroleum revenue funds which are considered among the successful nonrenewable resource funds. Rules governing the three funds are quite different, from deposit and withdrawal rules to investment strategies and how the funds withdrawn are to be spent .This briefing note, third in a series of four, gives a [...]

Avoiding the Resource Curse

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Many resource-rich countries have fallen prey to the natural resource curse [1]. But a handful of developing countries have managed to escape it. This note examines four resource-rich countries and the policies they have followed since the beginning of the 1970s. One, Nigeria, is a well-publicized case of oil wealth impoverishing rather than enriching the [...]

Introduction to Oil and Gas

Friday, December 19th, 2008

The announcement of Cambodia’s first significant petroleum discovery in January 2005 has put Cambodia on a path to becoming a new oil producer. The world petroleum industry has a long history and oil has not always benefited people in the countries where it is discovered for reasons not always easy to understand. This is the [...]