Oil major Chevron Corp. has confirmed paying $6.25 billion in taxes and shared oil production to Nigeria, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea in 2023, three times more than the company paid to the US government.
Chevron revealed the figures for the first time in a filing under Section 1504 of the Dodd Frank Act, which was finalised in 2020 and had a publication deadline of this week.
Australia, where Chevron operates giant liquefied natural gas operations, topped the tax list, receiving $3.98 billion. Chevron’s US tax and royalty bill was $1.99 billion despite the company producing more oil and gas in the nation than anywhere else.
Advocates for tax transparency have been calling for US oil companies to reveal their payments to host country governments for many years, arguing the disclosure is essential to avoiding corruption. European and Australian commodity producers have been publishing their payments for several years, but their US counterparts lobbied the Securities and Exchange Commission against such a rule.
“Civil society is really excited to see disclosure after 15 years of intense fighting and lobbying by the US oil and gas industry,” said senior policy advisor for natural resource justice at Oxfam America, Aubrey Menard.
The disclosures “will allow us to see what we’re actually receiving in exchange for our natural resources, whether it’s a fair deal or if we’re subsidising our own extinction.”
The US is rare in allowing private individuals to own the minerals underneath their land, so it tends to collect lower royalty payments than other countries where the resources are owned by the government.
“Chevron complies with all legal and contractual requirements in jurisdictions where the company operates,” company spokesman Bill Turenne said in an emailed statement. “Chevron supports well-designed financial disclosure requirements and will continue to work with relevant government agencies toward transparency and accountability between governments and the oil and gas industry.”
