OPEC Revenue Exceeds U.S. Income Tax Receipts: Chart of Day

By Peter Robison

Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- OPEC is pulling in more money from oil sales than the U.S. government is raising from individual taxpayers.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' export revenue will surpass what the U.S. raised last year in individual income taxes. The cartel's revenue may reach $1.174 trillion this year, edging U.S. personal income tax receipts for the first time since 1980, when gasoline shortages and the Iranian hostage crisis transfixed the country.

The scale of wealth at stake helps explain why offshore oil drilling is the subject of renewed debate in Congress, while business leaders including oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens back crash courses in renewable energy. As rising gasoline prices hobble U.S. companies from General Motors Corp. to Starbucks Corp., Middle East investors are accumulating stakes in global banks and purchasing icons like the Chrysler Building in New York.

``This is potentially an empire-ending problem,'' said Robert Zubrin, author of ``Energy Victory,'' a prescription for achieving U.S. energy independence. ``We're being brought low, and at the same time, someone else is being built up.''

Over three years, the 13 OPEC members, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, might bring in $3.5 trillion. That's almost equal to the market value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the benchmark U.S. stock index. U.S. drivers paid an average of $3.78 for a gallon of gas as of yesterday, 37 percent more than a year ago, according to AAA, the nation's largest motorist group.

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Robison in Seattle at robison@bloomberg.net