A study commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute (API) has found that ownership of U.S.-based, publicly traded oil and natural gas companies is overwhelmingly in the hands of middle class investors hoping that the industry’s success will provide them with a comfortable retirement.

“Individual investors who are not company executives or directors—‘insiders’—own 65.5% of the shares … measured by the value of all shares,” authors Robert J. Shapiro, chairman and CEO of Sonecon, and Nam D. Pham wrote in “Who Owns America’s Oil and Natural Gas Companies: A 2014 Update.”

That portion is divided into public and private pension plans that account for 28.9%, 401(k)s and IRAs that hold 17.9% and individual investors who own 18.7%. Oil and natural gas industry executives control only 2.9% of the shares.

The industry’s attractiveness to rank-and-file investors only makes sense, the authors contend.

“From 2005 to 2011, the leading oil and natural gas industry index (the NYSE Arca Oil Index) outperformed the Dow Jones Index; and since 2011, oil and natural gas industry returns have generally tracked or modestly outpaced the overall market,” they wrote. “This consistent performance has benefitted the industry’s broad-based investors.”

The API study divided the industry into three major segments:

  • Integrated oil and gas companies engaged in exploration, production, refining and transportation (44.1% share of industry market cap);
  • Non-integrated (operations) companies engaged in exploration, refining, and storage and transportation of refined products (39.8% share); and
  • Services companies engaged in manufacturing drilling rigs and equipment and providing services such as drilling, evaluation and completion of wells (16.1% share).

In percentage of outstanding shares, weighted by market capitalization, corporate executives were most likely (5.5%) to own units in the non-integrated segment and least likely (0.5%) to be involved in the integrated segment. Institutional investors dominated the non-integrated segment (76.4%), while individual investors were drawn to the integrated segment (39.9%) and services segment (26.9%).

Total market capitalization of U.S. publicly traded oil and gas companies surpassed $1.94 trillion in mid-2014, or 9.1% of the U.S. equity market total of $21.28 trillion. The authors assume that the percentage share of pension plans and IRA holdings mirrored the proportion of all equities, resulting in holdings in oil and gas for public and private pension funds, and IRAs to total $909 billion.

The study noted the 41.6% leap in total market value of publicly traded oil and gas companies, from $1.37 trillion in 2011 to $1.94 trillion in 2014.

Kyle Isakower, API vice president of regulatory and economic policy, stressed the short-term as well as long-term benefits of the industry’s achievements.

“The U.S. oil and natural gas industry is a major part of our nation’s economy,” Isakower said. “It supports 9.8 million jobs and pays more taxes than any other industry and at higher effective rates. As the Sonecon study shows, the industry also benefits millions of Americans who are its true owners.”