American oil companies say they made payments to foreign governments

The Texas-based oil giant paid $22.5 billion in taxes, royalties and other items overseas, with the United Arab Emirates ($7.4 billion), Indonesia ($4.6 billion) and Malaysia ($3.2 billion) topping the list, according to the disclosures.

By contrast, Exxon made about $2.3 billion in U.S.-based payments in 2023, including just $1.2 billion to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, according to Exxon’s report.

The annual report Exxon filed in 2023 reported $4.2 billion in upstream earnings in the U.S., compared to $17.1 billion in upstream earnings in non-U.S. markets.

In the first lines of Exxon’s report to the SEC, the company says it is not relevant to compare what it pays in the U.S. versus overseas, stating that total U.S. government payments were $6.6 billion last year if you add in more than $4 billion in state and local taxes that the regulations excluded.

Exxon officials would not comment beyond that.

All told, Chevron paid $14.6 billion to foreign governments in 2023, including a whopping $4 billion to Australia alone, the filings show. It paid just $2 billion here in the United States, the filings said.
A Chevron spokesperson said the company’s overhead in the U.S. can be much lower compared with overseas oil fields.

Take Chevron’s holdings in the Permian Basin, for example. Those total about 2.2 million acres with about 75% of that land connected to either low or no royalty payments. Company presentations put it this way: Chevron executives look at that as a huge advantage and one that creates shareholder value.

The majority of Chevron’s upstream profits came from international markets last year-at $17.4 billion compared to $4.1 billion in the United States-according to Chevron’s 2023 annual report.

Chevron refrained from criticizing the disclosure parameters in the filing and told Reuters it would keep working with the relevant agencies toward transparency and accountability between governments and the industry.

Of the $6.5 billion in global payments ConocoPhillips made last year overall, for example, only $1.3 billion was paid to the United States, the disclosures said.

Company spokespeople would not comment.

Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act paved the way for the new overseas activity disclosures by energy exploration and production companies.

In 2020, the SEC, in a divided 3-2 vote, adopted the rules at a time when the burgeoning ESG movement focused on environmental, social and governance matters implored more transparency on behalf of millions of US investors.

Adoption of the rule came, however, after a pitched battle, as: A federal court vacated the first attempt by the SEC to impose the mandate in 2013, while Congress blocked a second try in 2017.

Company US payments Overseas ($B) Total ($B)

Exxon 2.3 22.5 24.8
Chevron 2.0 14.6 16.6
ConocoPhillips 1.3 5.2 6.5
Total 5.8 42.3 47.9