The resource governance dimensions of Hollywood blockbuster Black Panther, a groundbreaking online oil sector simulation and extractive contracts transparency were all hot topics this year.

Across the world, journalists have been key to uncovering malfeasance in the natural resources sector. Media have exposed illicit activities by international oil companies like Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria. They have shed light on Cameroon petroleum contracts that bring few benefits to locals and to national accounts.

NRGI president and CEO Daniel Kaufmann and NRGI advisors Alexandra Gillies and Patrick Heller share some ideas for keeping state companies accountable.

Each year, the Anglophone Africa Regional Extractive Industries Knowledge Hub intensive two-week September course in Accra focuses on the most pressing regional issues in resource governance.

It was a turbulent year for extractives governance, bringing both setbacks and achievements. That said, there also is much cause for optimism.

NRGI set out to collect total oil, gas and mining revenue data for the countries included in the Resource Governance Index to find out how many dollars flow to governments that mismanage the handling of their natural resources. 

NRGI's Media for Oil Reform Fellowship is a development program designed to promote reporting that deepens knowledge of the Nigeria oil sector and that drives positive change in the sector. 

When Premium Times began investigating the Malabu oil scandal—which involves Royal Dutch Shell and Eni, as well as former Nigeria petroleum minister Dan Etete and other politically exposed persons—there was little sense of where the Nigerian newspaper’s reporting would lead.

In most countries, national governments negotiate extraction contracts with companies and collect the revenues, but it is those closest to the extraction site that see their physical and economic landscape change most dramatically.