This Guidance was prepared by Elliot Smith, Legal Analyst, Natural Resources for Development Unit, OECD Development Centre under the guidance, direction and supervision of Lahra Liberti, Head of the Natural Resources for Development Unit, OECD Development Centre. This Guidance was developed within the framework of the OECD Development Centre’s Policy Dialogue on Natural Resource-based Development, and in particular its Thematic Dialogue on Commodity Trading Transparency. The Guidance was prepared in response to the demand received from the participants in the Ninth Plenary Meeting of the Policy Dialogue on Natural Resource-based Development to work towards the development of guidance to support state-owned enterprises in selecting buyers.
The Guidance was developed through an iterative process, involving SOEs, from both EITI and non-EITI countries, selling oil, gas and minerals, as well as other stakeholders from governments, the private sector and civil society.
The Guidance benefitted from the input of these stakeholders during discussions on early drafts of the document at the Eleventh Plenary Meeting of the Policy Dialogue on Natural Resource-based Development held on 12-13 December 2018, the Twelfth Plenary Meeting of the Policy Dialogue on Natural Resource-based Development held on 20-21 June 2019, and the Fourteenth Plenary Meeting of the Policy Dialogue on Natural Resource-based Development, held on 26 June 2020.
Additional input was received from respondents to a Questionnaire to State-owned Enterprises on Selection Procedures used to Select Buyers of Oil, Gas and Minerals from August to October 2018, as well as comments on the final draft Guidance from SOEs and other interested stakeholders received from July to August 2020.
Comments received from key stakeholders participating in the Policy Dialogue – state-owned enterprises, resource-rich countries, commodity trading companies, civil society and international organisations – are gratefully acknowledged. In particular, the author is thankful to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI); Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC); Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI); Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Okavango Diamond Company (ODC); and U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre for their valuable contributions.
The author would also like to thank OECD colleagues Hans Christiansen and Alison McMeekin (OECD Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs) for their expert review and valuable comments, and Delphine Grandrieux and Elizabeth Nash (OECD Development Centre) for support during the publication process.