On December 11, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) proposed rules required under Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Act”). Section 1504 of the Act added Section 13(q) to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”), which directs the SEC to issue rules requiring resource extraction issuers to include in an annual report information relating to any payment made by the issuer, a subsidiary of the issuer, or an entity under the control of the issuer, to a foreign government or the federal government for purposes of the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals.

The proposed rules are subject to two comment periods. Initial comments are due on January 25, 2016. Reply comments, which may only respond to issues raised in the initial comment period, are due on February 16, 2016. In developing the final rules, the SEC will rely on both new comments and comments that have been received to date, including those which were provided in connection with the prior rules that the SEC issued under Section 13(q).