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Oil, Gas Industry Sees Lobby Spending Dip In 2022

By Julianne Geiger - Feb 23, 2023

When adjusted for inflation, the oil and gas industry’s spend on lobbying the federal government last year dipped slightly.

In actual terms, oil and gas industry spent $124.4 million on federal lobbying, according to an OpenSecrets’ analysis that was released on Thursday.  Of that $124.4 million, Koch Industries spend $11.29 million—more than any other oil and gas industry, the records show.

In real terms, the 2022 spend is up slightly from 2021—but 2021 lobbying spend was still depressed from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Oxy, Exxon, Conoco, and Chevron spent a combined $44.3 million on federal lobbying.

The API, unsurprisingly, also spent a big chunk on lobbying—about $4.4 million.

Overall, just ten oil and gas companies accounted for more than half of the spending on lobbying from the industry.

Also not surprisngly, the most-lobbied congressional bill, according to OpenSecrets, was the massive Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Other lobbying agendas include regulatory approvals for large projects, like Conoco’s Willow project in the Alaskan Arctic and Enterprise Products Partners deepwater oil export terminal offshore Texas.

Last year, 636 oil and gas lobbyists registered to attend COP27 in Egypt, 25% more than oil and gas lobbyist registrants in COP26—and more than the combined delegates of the ten countries most impacted by climate change. The oil and gas lobby attending the event exceeded any single national delegation apart from the UAE.

The oil and gas lobby has increased the calls on the Biden Administration to increase access to domestic oil and gas resources, reform the permitting process, and reverse the hostile rhetoric toward the industry—changes that could help to bolster America’s energy security.

“If America doesn’t lead, others will,” API President and CEO Mike Sommers said last month.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com