The Texas oil and gas industry paid $13.9 billion in taxes and state royalties in fiscal 2020, funded more than $2 billion to school districts and $688 million to counties.

That’s despite being hard hit by state and local shutdown orders, and an oil war waged between Russia and Saudi Arabia forcing oil prices to record lows.

“Even in an extremely difficult year, the Texas oil and natural gas industry continues to contribute tremendously to state and local tax coffers, while fortifying our energy security and leading the way in innovation and investment that is advancing environmental progress,” TXOGA President Todd Staples said in a statement. “The ongoing recovery of the oil and natural gas industry is essential to the state’s continuing economic improvement.

“While oil prices plummeted in the wake of the pandemic, the need for products made from oil and natural gas skyrocketed. Nearly every in-demand product we need to be safe, to save lives and to power our economy – from face shields and hand sanitizers to high-speed internet connections and computers – is made possible by oil and natural gas,” he added.

In 2020, 99 percent of the Texas’ oil and natural gas royalties directly funded the Permanent School Fund to the tune of $942 million and the Permanent University Fund $771 million. The state’s Rainy Day Fund received $1.657 billion from oil and natural gas taxes.

In 2020, Texas school districts received more than $2 billion in property taxes from mineral properties producing oil and natural gas, pipelines, and gas utilities, the Texas Oil & Gas Association notes. Counties received $688.4 million in these property taxes.

The association listed the positive impact of the oil and gas industry in the state in its Annual Energy & Economic Impact Report. It also published two papers listing how much the industry paid in property taxes by county and for each ISD.

Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD in West Texas received the most money – $167.6 million, an increase of 53 percent from the previous fiscal year and significantly more than other ISDs by comparison. Funding came from taxes on mineral properties producing oil and gas, pipelines, and gas utilities, excluding refineries, petrochemicals, or other properties.

Reeves County received the most of any county, $74.5 million, an 80 percent increase from last year from oil and natural gas property taxes.

The reports also show the greatest share of the total tax base by county funded from taxes on mineral properties producing oil and gas, pipelines, and gas utilities, excluding refineries, petrochemicals, or other properties. These taxes funded a significant majority of the tax base of nine counties: Loving (91.4 percent), McMullen (86.8 percent), Dimmit County (87.3 percent), Upton County (86 percent), Martin County (85.7 percent), Reeves County (84.4 percent), Reagan County (84 percent), La Salle County (82 percent), Karnes County (81.6).