The economic impact of Texas' Barnett Shale now outstrips the impact of the Dallas-Forth Worth area's other major industries, including aircraft and automotive manufacturing, according to a study released Tuesday.
The study, sponsored by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and conducted by economic consultancy Perryman Group, said that while the Barnett Shale accounts for 8.5% of the region's business activity, activities around the shale have accounted for 38.5% of the region's economic growth.
The study examined economic activities and impacts in the four "core" Barnett Shale counties of Denton, Johnson, Tarrant and Wise, as well as 23 of the 24 non-core counties of the play as defined by the Texas Railroad Commission. Data from non-core Dallas County was omitted because drilling activity there is small and the county's large amount of economic activity centered on the city of Dallas would skew the study's results, the report said.
In 2011, leasing, drilling and selling gas from the Barnett Shale -- including all the associated jobs created by direct employment by gas producers and lease payments to landowners -- accounted for $11.1 billion in output for the region, with an additional $2.6 billion contribution to the state of Texas as a whole, the study said.
Barnett Shale-related activity created 100,268 jobs in the Fort Worth region over the decade from 2001 to 2011, the study said, with another 20,000 jobs being created throughout the state of Texas.
The study said that more than two-thirds, 64,747, of those jobs were directly related to exploration and drilling, with another 22,023 jobs created through building and operating pipelines. A remaining 13,497 jobs were estimated to have been created through the activity of landowners spending their royalty and leasing income, the study said.
"The economic impact of the Barnett Shale goes far beyond just the drilling of new wells, which is to say that these economic benefits will continue as long as the wells produce," Perryman Group founder Ray Perryman said.
Ten years of shale-related activity have created $65.4 billion ($6.5 billion/year) in gross economic product for the region with an additional $15.2 billion ($1.5 billion/year) of GDP created throughout the rest of Texas, the study said.
Local and state governments have received more than $10 billion over 10 years in estimated tax revenues, the study said, with $5.3 billion going to local governments and $5.8 billion going to the state.
In 2011, the Barnett Shale will contribute $1.6 billion in taxes with $730 million going to counties, towns and schools and $912 million going to the state government, the study estimated.
