Big US oil companies reveal massive payments to foreign governments

The three largest U.S. energy exploration companies, Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp, and ConocoPhillips, paid over $42 billion to foreign governments in the previous year, which is roughly eight times more than their payments within the United States. This information was disclosed for the first time due to a new SEC requirement, which transparency advocates have been pushing for over a decade. The aim is to shed light on Big Oil s foreign financial transactions and assess whether U.S. taxpayers receive a fair share of the value from the U.S. s surge in oil and gas production. In 2023, about 90% of Exxon s global payments, totaling nearly $25 billion, were made to foreign governments, despite nearly a quarter of its global exploration and production earnings coming from the U.S. The United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Malaysia were among the top recipients of Exxon s overseas payments. In contrast, Exxon made about $2.3 billion in U.S.-based payments, including $1.2 billion to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Chevron paid $14.6 billion to foreign governments, with $4 billion going to Australia alone. The company made just $2 billion in the U.S. Chevron executives view the low overhead in the U.S. as a significant advantage, particularly in the Permian Basin, where about 75% of the land has low or no royalty payments. ConocoPhillips paid $1.3 billion of its $6.5 billion total global payments to the U.S. The disclosures were made possible by Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which was adopted by the SEC in 2020 after a long battle involving a federal court vacating the SEC s first attempt and Congress blocking a second attempt. The rule aims to increase transparency and accountability between governments and the energy industry, in response to the growing ESG movement. Overall, the disclosures reveal a significant disparity in the distribution of payments between the U

Source: gazette.com
Published on 2024-09-30

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