Economic Contributions

 

California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington

Petroleum Industry Economic Impacts - WSPA Region.pdf

State and Regional Data Sheets

In addition to providing dependable energy for consumers and businesses, the petroleum industry in the western United States also is a major contributor to the region’s economic vitality.

The petroleum industry is responsible for more than 500,000 jobs in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii, with an annual payroll of $36 billion.  Total sales for the industry were almost $220 billion.  In addition, excise, sales, corporate income and personal income taxes provided $9 billion to $12 billion in revenues for government services.

These and other revealing facts are contained in two new economic impact reports prepared by Dr. Jose Alberro of LECG consulting.  Using the most recent public data available, Dr. Alberro documents the petroleum industry’s contributions to the economic well being of the western Untied States.

His study of the six-state WSPA region is called “The Importance of the Petroleum Industry to the Economy of the Western States,” and is an update of data first compiled in 2002 and updated in 2006. 

A second study, called “The Importance of the Petroleum Industry to the Economy of Four California Regions” looks at the economic contributions our industry provides to four regions in California – Southern California, the San Joaquin Valley, the Central Coast region near Santa Barbara and the San Francisco Bay Area. These regions were selected because they are centers of oil production in the case of the San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast and refining in the case of Southern California and the Bay Area.

Petroleum industry jobs, for the most part, also are high-paying jobs.  According to Dr. Alberro’s report, the men and women who work in the refining, production and pipeline transportation portions of the industry earn salaries and wages that are 46 percent to 72 percent higher than the average earnings for private sector workers. 

Both of these reports can be downloaded from this website.  We hope you find them informative.  We believe they accurately reflect the petroleum industry’s contribution to our region’s prosperity and quality of life.

Washington

Washington Economic Impacts 2009.pdf
According to the Washington Research Council, in 2007, Washington state refiners directly provided 2,003 full-time jobs, paying an annual average wage of nearly $110,000. In addition, the refiners employed, at high wages, 3,144 contract workers on an average day, doing maintenance, capital repair and capital replacement. The refiners indirectly created additional Washington state jobs in industries from which they purchased goods and services, including transportation, construction, utilities and business services.

Spending of the income earned in these direct and indirect jobs created even more jobs. The sum of all these effects was more than 20,000 jobs and one billion dollars in personal income for Washington State in 2007. From this activity, state and local government received $39.4 million in sales and use taxes and $79.8 million in business and occupation taxes.

In particular, the portion of the industry that distributes refined petroleum products, paid $407million in wages to 17,326 workers in 2007. Excise taxes collected by the state from these industries came to nearly $245 million.