A Chevron gas station in Houston, Texas. Photo: APWashington
Monday, 31 May 2010
A group of shareholders at an annual Chevron meeting voted in favor of more transparency in payments to host countries like Cambodia last week, in a move energy watchdogs hailed as a positive step.
Shareholders representing 160 million shares, about 7 percent of the total, voted in favor of the transparency proposal in an annual meeting in Houston, Texas, on May 26.
Chevron has exploratory interests in Cambodia’s offshore oil and gas and is facing increased pressure from the government to begin drilling. But money within the extractive industry, including in Cambodia, often remains veiled.
“With this level of shareholder support, Chevron can no longer ignore the call for transparency,” Ian Gary, an extractive industries policymaker for Oxfam America who attended the meeting, said in a press release. “We know oil revenues are often squandered through corruption, internal conflict and weak governance.”
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