OpenOil believes that oil and gas production can benefit the citizens of producing countries more effectively, and the damage wrought by opaque and undemocratic government, often as a result of the prize to be obtained by controlling natural resource wealth, can be mitigated and reversed

Mapping Corporate Networks

OpenOil is developing a network of corporate relations in the oil, gas and mining industries. Together with iilab they are developing a tool that can be used to facilitate investigations into the major corporate players in the extractive industries of certain countries including Nigeria, Tunisia and Mozambique.

The public domain data we plan to surface in this application will help people understand issues like: - Which companies own which other companies – who is in the corporate ‘family tree’ - Which companies hold the contracts for major concession areas, including both primary primary production contracts and secondary subcontracts to service companies - Who is behind these companies, i.e. members of the board, executive officers, managers etc. - What government agencies and officials are involved in industry oversight in areas like license allocation, project approval or dispute resolution

Nigeria

There are hundreds of oil companies operating in Nigeria, but beyond the big names like Shell and Exxon, the nature of most of these companies is poorly understood outside industry circles. OpenOil seeks to shed more light on the relationships between companies in the Nigerian oil sector through a network visualisation and investigation platform. The platform shows how players in the sector are connected: companies, individuals, and government agencies, as well as banks, trusts, and foundations. The project aims to show which companies hold oil contracts in Nigeria and surfaces salient facts about these contracts, like their value and duration. It also seeks to identify the shareholders and beneficial owners of companies both domestically and internationally.

The platform will facilitate research into the value chain of Nigerian oil and will be particularly relevant to processes of due diligence, auditing and investigative journalism. OpenOil is driving the project in collaboration with the Niger Delta civil society coalition NACGOND.