Texas Gets $14 Billion In Taxes, Royalties From Oil & Gas In 2020

By Tsvetana Paraskova | OilPrice.com

The Texas oil and gas industry paid a total of $13.9 billion in state and local taxes and state royalties in fiscal year 2020, the Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA) said in its annual Energy & Economic Impact Report this week.

The amount of taxes and royalties the state collected last year was lower than the record-high $16.3 billion in local taxes and state royalties in fiscal year 2019 when oil and natural gas production in the Lone Star State surged to records.  

“As challenging as last year was, the Texas oil and natural gas industry contributed tremendously to state and local tax coffers,” Todd Staples, President Texas Oil & Gas Association, said in the foreword to the report for 2020.

“This revenue from oil and natural gas production, pipelines, refineries and LNG facilities translates into about $38 million each day that pay for our schools, universities, roads, first responders and essential services,” Staples noted.

Since 2007, when the association first started compiling this data, the Texas oil and natural gas industry has paid more than $162.9 billion in state and local taxes and state royalties, according to TXOGA.

The industry employed 400,974 Texans during financial year 2020, the association said, noting that every direct job in the Texas oil and natural gas industry creates an additional 2.4 Texas jobs.

To compare, TXOGA’s report for 2019 showed that the industry employed 428,234 Texans during FY 2019.

Texas, as the biggest oil-producing state in the United States, saw in 2020 the highest number of job losses in the industry as a result of the crash in oil prices and oil demand.

Although the Texas upstream oil and gas industry remained in contraction in the third quarter of 2020, signs started to emerge in employment and rig counts that the sector may have already seen the worst of the downturn and could be headed to recovery, the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers said in early November.

A Texas Alliance of Energy Producers survey carried out in November showed that 75 percent of more than 160 oil and gas professionals think 2021 would be better or about the same for the industry as 2020. Texas energy professionals, however, expressed concern about federal overreach with the Biden Administration.

Commenting on the survey, Jason Modglin, President of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, said:

“Concerns about economic conditions and burdensome federal overreach are very real, but these results and comments demonstrate a determination to fight and persevere.”