TheCorporateCounsel.net

While on the topic of the resource extraction issuer disclosure rules, following Congress’s action to undo an earlier iteration of the rule, the SEC adopted new requirements in the waning days of the Trump administration. The rule requires a resource extraction issuer to provide information about the type and total amount of such payments made for each project related to the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals, and the type and total amount of payments made to each government.

During Gensler’s term as SEC Chair, the topic of revisiting the resource extraction issuer disclosure requirements has been on the agenda, but that effort has not yet come to pass. Absent further Commission action, 2024 will be the first year when resource extraction issuers must provide the required disclosures. Following the two-year transition period contemplated by the rules adopted in December 2020, a Form SD reporting the required payment information must be furnished within 270 days after the end of the resource extraction issuer’s fiscal year. For a calendar-year end resource extraction issuer, that would mean filing the first Form SD in September 2024. Smaller reporting companies and emerging growth companies are exempt from these reporting requirements, unless subject to similar requirements under an alternative reporting regime. Companies that complete an IPO are not required to comply until the fiscal year following the year in which the IPO is completed.

For more information, be sure to check out our “Resource Extraction” Practice Area.

– Dave Lynn