O & G REPORT

February 2020

Padding Big Oil’s Profits: Companies
Bank Trillions, Taxpayers Get The BillThe six largest oil and gas companies reported
in excess of $55 billion in combined profits in2019. Just these six companies have generated$2.4 trillion in profits since 1990 (see tablebelow). The oil and gas industry is undoubtedly
one of the most profitable in the world.
Despite their enormous profitability, oil and gas
companies still receive generous subsidies fromthe U.S. federal government. They have also
avoided the massive costs of climate change
caused by oil and gas consumption. These costs,
which include damages from intensified storms,
floods, and drought easily run into the trillions ofdollars, and are now largely paid for by federal
taxpayers. The oil and gas industry has known for

decades about the linkage between fossil fuelconsumption and climate change, but they choseto publicly deny it while the federal government– taxpayers – have paid the price.
As the government’s fiscal health continues
to deteriorate, and climate change costs rise,
taxpayers cannot afford to shell out billionsof dollars in subsidies and carry mounting
climate liabilities for the hugely profitable oiland gas industry.
Provisions of the U.S. tax code that allow oil
and gas companies to write off exploration anddevelopment expenses, form master limited
partnerships, and take advantage of Last-In,

TOP 6 PRIVATE OIL & GAS COMPANIES’ PROFITS ($, MILLIONS)
2019
ExxonMobil Corp.

1990-2019 ($-nominal)

1990-2019 ($-2019)$14,340$613,130$775,159

Royal Dutch Shell PLC

15,843411,316

523,632

BP P.L.C.

4,026

257,769

331,703

Chevron Corp.

2,924

291,496

360,609

Total S.A.

11,267

228,591

278,417

ConocoPhillips
Top 6 Total

7,189

114,250

145,741$55,589$1,916,552$2,415,260

Padding Big Oil’s Profits: Companies Bank Trillions, Taxpayers Get The Bill 2First-Out accounting (among others) reducerevenue to the Treasury by billions of dollars everyyear. Combined with charitable regulations fordevelopment on federal lands that allow for freeuse of natural gas, methane venting and flaring
with little oversight, and royalty payments at afraction of rates charged by state and private lands,these policies have padded industry’s profits bymore than $100 billion over the last few decades,
all at taxpayers’ expense.
While these subsidies continuously bumped
up the bottom line for oil and gas companies,
they deepened the U.S. budget deficit. Runningsuch deficits year after year has swelled theU.S. national debt. Over the 30 years in which

the oil and gas companies made $2.4 trillion
in profits, the national debt ballooned to $23
trillion, roughly doubling the debt as a shareof GDP. In January, the Congressional Budget
Office—the official legislative fiscal scorekeeper—projected that debt would continue to climb
to near-record levels by 2030. Subsidies to theoil and gas industry play a small role in overall
debt accumulation, but the corporate favors
are unjustifiable at any cost to taxpayers as thenation’s fiscal health deteriorates.
The pressure on both national and individuals’
finances in the U.S. will be exacerbated by therising costs of recovering from and mitigating thedramatic effects of climate change.

Six Companies, Three Decades, Trillions in Profits($ in millions of 2019 dollars)$180,000$135,000$90,000$45,000$0

2 2 2
2 2 2 219 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 2
2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2 2 2 2 290 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 9 9 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 010 011 01 01 01 015 016 017 018 019
4328 98 9
2 3 4 5 6 70 1
ExxonMobil Corp.

taxpayer.net

Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

facebook.com/taxpayers

BP P.L.C.

Chevron Corp.

twitter.com/taxpayers

Total S.A.

ConocoPhillips

info@taxpayer.net