The U.S. oil and gas industry shed more than 160,000 direct jobs in 2020, with nearly half of those losses coming in Texas amid the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, an annual assessment of the sector shows.

pandemic Texas

In its State of Energy Report, the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO) said the oil and gas industry employed 902,223 workers last year, down 160,323 from a year earlier. In Texas, the nation’s largest state for energy employment, the industry supported a total of 347,529 direct jobs in 2020, down 73,982 from the previous year.

The pandemic jolted the industry in the spring of 2020, when government lockdown orders — imposed to slow the spread of the virus — froze travel and choked off demand for transportation fuels made from oil. Crude...