Tullow Oil's government payment disclosure revealed it paid income tax for the first time in Ghana last year after recovering part of investment in its largest project.
The producer, which pumps about 100,000 barrels of oil a day from the Jubilee field offshore Ghana, paid about $107 million (€77 million) in income tax, or about half of all the money it remitted to the government, according to its annual report published today.
Total payments to nations rose 25 per cent to $870.4 million last year from a year ago, driven by projects in Kenya, Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea.
“In 2012, we acted ahead of regulatory developments and published our tax and other payments to governments and other major stakeholders,” Tullow said in the report. This year it stepped up its transparency effort by disclosing payments on a project-by-project basis and providing more details.
The Irish company, based in London, has been leading the initiative for companies to give details about their payments to governments, part of a worldwide effort to combat corruption, according to Global Witness, a UK advocacy group.
EU directive
Tullow, which is pumping most of its oil in Africa, started reporting before a European Union directive requires the information in 2015 but it is also reporting payments beyond the scope of that report.
The report includes income taxes, royalties, dividends, bonus payments, licence fees, VAT, withholding taxes, PAYE and national insurance for their workforces as well as “production entitlements”.
Overall, the company paid $834.6 million to states in north and west Africa and $44.7 million to countries in south and east Africa. Countries receiving payments include Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Uganda, Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, Mauritania, Namibia. Ethiopia, Mozambique and Suriname. It also paid $71 million to the UK, almost $6 million to the Netherlands and $4.6 million to Ireland.
