Oklahoma government leaders are learning the cold hard truth of what the COVID-19 pandemic has done to the state’s oil and gas industry as they reported a 4.5% drop in general revenue fund collections from a year ago for the month of November.
Here’s how the sobering news hit them.
November gross production tax collections of $11.4 million were $33.2 million, or 74.4%, below the estimate and $46.5 million, or 80.4%, below the prior year.
Natural Gas collections of $11.3 million were $6.7 million, or 37.2%, below the estimate and $4.3 million, or 27.7%, below the prior year.
Oil collections of $54,000 were $26.5 million, or 99.8%, below the estimate and $42.2 million, or 99.9%, below the prior year.
In short, the state doesn’t get new oil and gas revenue when new wells are not drilled and existing ones are shut down due to low prices.
All of that bad news translates into smaller overall collections for the month of November. Total collections were $446 million or nearly $21 million above the estimate but more than $21 million below collections of a year earlier.
Click here to read more at the McCarville Report.