Social and Environmental Disclosures of Nigerian Oil Companies

Social and environmental disclosures are often perceived as a tool for communicating the social and environmental effects of a company’s actions to its relevant interest groups and to the society as a whole. Host communities perceptions are largely informed by the contradictions of wealth generated through oil production amidst widespread poverty resulting in anger, frustration and hostility towards the oil companies. The companies are perceived as being responsible for the negative impacts of oil exploration and extraction. Most social and environmental disclosures are almost always general and limited in nature, declarative with non-monetary quantification in terms of financial impacts. Local companies tend to provide more extent, type and nature of social and environmental disclosures than foreign companies. However, local companies report mostly general social and environmental disclosure information.