The US Department of the Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) distributed $11.69 billion from energy production on federal and American Indian-owned lands and offshore areas during the 12 months ended Sept. 30, US Interior Sec. David Bernhardt reported on Oct. 24.
The fiscal 2019 amount represents $2.76 billion more than in fiscal 2018 and is nearly double the disbursements allocated at the end of the Obama administration at $6.23 billion for fiscal 2016, he noted.
States received $2.44 billion in disbursements and more than $1 billion was disbursed to American Indian tribes and individual Indian mineral owners, ONRR said. Additionally, $1.76 billion went to the Reclamation Fund (RF), $1 billion to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), $150 million to the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), and the remaining $5.35 billion to the US Treasury, it said.
Total revenue collected last year increased by 31% from fiscal 2018 to $12 billion, continuing an upward trend for the Trump administration, ONRR said. Often the second-highest generator of federal income following taxes, energy revenue disbursements are a critical funding source for states, Indian tribes, and individual Indian mineral owners, as well as to LWCF, RF, HPF, and the US Treasury, it said.
“Responsible natural gas and oil development continues to bring incredible economic and conservation benefits to communities across the nation,” said Stephanie Meadows, manager of upstream and industry operations, upstream and industry operations manager at the American Petroleum Institute.
“We are proud that the development of oil and gas, both onshore and offshore, allows the US to reinvest back into important areas such as education, infrastructure, and conservation,” Meadows said.
New Mexico’s unusual step
Meadows said that it was especially exciting to see new production benefits in New Mexico, where Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) announced that the state would use its share of federal oil and gas revenue to fund free tuition at public universities, regardless of income, which potentially will benefit 55,000 students.
“Royalties and revenue from federal oil and gas production fund programs in all 50 states,” Meadows said. “Everyone, including US territories and the District of Columbia, benefits from offshore energy development via grants, through programs such as the LWCF, that support state conservation and outdoor recreation projects—not just energy-producing states.”
ONRR said it disbursed more than $2.44 billion of the fiscal 2019 federal energy revenue to 35 states as their cumulative share of revenue collected from oil, gas, and mineral production on federal land within their borders and from offshore oil and gas tracts in federal waters adjacent to their shores.
Nick Snow
NICK SNOW covered oil and gas in Washington for more than 30 years. He worked in several capacities for The Oil Daily and was founding editor of Petroleum Finance Week before joining OGJ as its Washington correspondent in September 2005 and becoming its full-time Washington editor in October 2007. He retired from OGJ in January 2020.