Analysis
NAICS 211120 is the 2022 national industry for crude petroleum extraction, part of 21112 (Crude Petroleum Extraction). Census lists 14 example activities under it in the official index.
Between 2018 and 2023 the number of establishments fell 25% and employment fell 22%. The 2018 count used NAICS 2017, so part of a large move can come from codes being redefined rather than from businesses opening or closing.
County Business Patterns counts 3,863 US establishments in this code in 2023, employing 63,367 people at an average annual payroll of $200,722 per employee (100th percentile of national industries). 66% of the establishments have fewer than five employees, which marks it as a small-business industry.
Its index entries, the activities Census uses to assign businesses to this code, include crude petroleum from oil sand, crude petroleum from oil shale, crude petroleum lease condensate production and crude petroleum production, among 14 in all.
Its goods appear in 3 statistical lines of the US tariff schedule, mostly under headings 2709 () and 2714 (bitumen and asphalt, natural; bituminous or oil shale and…). That link is how import data is matched to domestic producers, for example in trade-remedy cases.
Census lists 3 related activities that belong elsewhere, most often in 21311, 2111 and 324110. Businesses that do several things are classified by their primary activity, the one that generates the most value, so check those boundaries before settling on this code.
Official definition
This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in (1) the exploration, development, and/or the production of petroleum from wells in which the hydrocarbons will initially flow or can be produced using normal or enhanced drilling and extraction techniques or (2) the production of crude petroleum from surface shales or tar sands or from reservoirs in which the hydrocarbons are semisolids. Establishments in this industry operate oil wells on their own account or for others on a contract or fee basis.
Source: US Census Bureau, NAICS 2022 Manual.
Not this code if…
| The business mainly does | Use instead |
|---|---|
| Performing oil field services for operators on a contract or fee basis | 21311 Support Activities for Mining |
| The combined activities of crude petroleum and natural gas extraction | 2111 Oil and Gas Extraction, based on the primary activity of the establishment |
| Refining crude petroleum into refined petroleum and liquid hydrocarbons | 324110 Petroleum Refineries |
Index entries (14)
- Crude petroleum from oil sand
- Crude petroleum from oil shale
- Crude petroleum lease condensate production
- Crude petroleum production
- Kerogen processing
- Offshore crude petroleum production
- Oil field development for own account
- Oil field exploration for own account
- Oil shale mining and/or beneficiating
- Operating crude petroleum field gathering lines, except on a contract basis
- Petroleum, crude, production (i.e., extraction)
- Shale, oil, mining and/or beneficiating
- Stripper oil well production
- Tar sands mining