14 June 2016 Tunisia, on Tuesday, officially began the publication of documents on all oil agreements signed in Tunisia, Minister of Energy and Mining, Mongi Marzouk announced, noting that these agreements number 82, including 29 permits and 53 operating benefits governed by specific agreements and annexes dating from 1960. Speaking at a press conference at the headquarters of the Tunisian Enterprise of Petroleum Activities (ETAP), the Minister pointed out that "lawmakers and the sector's professionals, including operators, investors, authorities, organisations, researchers and journalists, have the ability to view open data and sites that fall under them to ensure that all agreements on prospecting, research and exploitation are fully published." Marzouk said, in the presence of most of the top officials of foreign oil companies in Tunisia, that all concerned parties will find on the site the participation or production sharing contracts signed between the investor and ETAP. He, on this occasion, noted that several oil producing countries and a number of international companies have opted for the partial and gradual publication of contracts, while Tunisia has chosen the complete and immediate publication of contracts in implementation of principles of the Constitution. The Minister considered that the publication of hydrocarbon prospecting, research and production agreements in Tunisia and their annexes mark "a step in the framework of an overall strategy towards good governance in the sector," noting that this approach is one of the outstanding features of the reform policy initiated by the Ministry of Energy and Mining. This policy consists of opening and adoption of the criteria of transparency and good governance. The minister said the Ministry of Energy and Mining is preparing a data portal on investment in the hydrocarbon and mining sector (commitment 18). This portal on the situation in the oil and mining sector includes all information on production, consumption, import, export, distribution, contracts and data on companies operating in the sector and the volume of their investments, and their work contracts, in addition to revenues from the sector. © Tunis-Afrique Presse 2016
