Transparency Standards: Today, transparency standards originating from different organizations are promoted within the oil industry. Despite this diversity in transparency standards, one could say that the oil industry is undergoing a process of standardization.

Abstract

There is a lack of transparency in the global business world. The larger the sectors of business the more shallow they get. The extractive industries have operated in as they have seen fit, and due to a major lack of transparency requirements from global actors it has severe consequences for millions of people. The globalization has created problems regarding governance, especially international governance. As there are many areas that have not received the proper attention one finds “loopholes” when it comes to the likes of multinational corporations operating all over the world. In an attempt to fill these unattended areas of international governance and global regulation there have been offered some attention to “soft-laws” such as norms, business principles and standards. Through the thesis I’ll introduce a few transparency standards and discuss their legitimacy and potent. More specifically the standards are within the global oil sector where the largest multinational corporations in the world operate. By exploring the interaction between standards and a couple of case studies the thesis analyzes the global oil sector regarding transparency and multinational corporations.