Unlike subsidies to fossil-fuel consumers, there is currently little hard data about the size or impacts of subsidies to fossil-fuel producers. The Global Subsidies Initiative’s new series, Fossil Fuels - At What Cost?, aims to rectify this situation by identifying and where possible quantifying these ‘producer subsidies’, using an internationally agreed definition of subsidy adopted by the World Trade Organization. The first and second reports in the series, focusing on Indonesia and Canada, were published this September and October.

Fossil Fuels – At What Cost? Support for upstream oil and gas activities in Indonesia details Indonesia's system of Production Sharing Contracts and concludes that three subsidies can clearly be identified, totalling US$ 1.8 billion in 2008. The study notes that this is a lower-bound figure, as at least seven other potential subsidies were identified that could not be assessed or quantified based on the available information.
 
Fossil Fuels – At What Cost? Government support for upstream oil activities in three Canadian provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador identifies 63 subsidies at the federal and provincial level, totalling C$ 2.84 billion (US$ 2.82 billion). The study sets out the financial, economic and environmental costs and benefits of the subsidies and forecasts that the cost of subsidies to governments would double by 2020. It also estimates that they will be responsible for a 2% growth in Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and that, with or without the subsidies, the oil industry will double in size by 2020.
 
The GSI’s research on fossil-fuel subsidies is freely available from its website: http://www.globalsubsidies.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies