Of the full list, almost 579 of the 1534 companies avoided paying the ATO, although the tax office has stressed that paying no tax does not mean companies have been engaged in tax avoidance.

Companies may have incurred tax losses or used prior losses to minimise their payments.

For example, tech giant Apple had total income of about $6.1 billion, but only $247 million of that was taxable income, so it paid just $74 million in tax.

In contrast Woodside Petroleum earned $6.2 billion, of which $1.1 billion was taxable, so it paid $327 million in tax, while Santos earned $4.4 million and paid $3 million in tax.

Services firm Monadelphous raked in $2.3 billion and paid $44 million in tax.

AWE, AJ Lucas, Eni, PTTEP and Kogas raked in between $200-300 million and all appear to have avoided paying tax, based on the ATO data.

Senex, as an example, as carry forward tax losses from many years of significant investment in oil and gas exploration in Australia, primarily the 21 years under "Dry Hole" John Kopcheff, and is offsetting its tax with those losses.

It complies with all relevant tax legislation and contributes to Federal and State tax systems through means such as royalties, payroll tax, transfer duties, and workforce taxes.

Oil Search, which has its oil and gas assets outside Australia but operates its office here, earned $140 million in Australia and paid $11 million in tax, more than companies such as Halliburton, Technip, Civmec, McDermott, Diamond Offshore Ensco, Wood Group, Brunel Energy and DOF Subsea, despite the fact those companies benefitted from an unprecedented resources boom and a construction supercycle to support the LNG sector.

BHP Billiton paid 10% tax on its income of more than $40 billion, while iron ore miner Rio Tinto paid 9% tax on its income of almost $34 billion, and Fortescue Metals Group earned $12.4 billion and paid almost $740 million.

Origin Energy earned $12.5 billion, AGL $8.8 billion, Shell $24 billion and Beach earned $1 billion and they paid $108 million (0.9%), $127 million (1.4%), $87 million (0.4%) and $64 million (5.9%) respectively.

Tax commissioner Chris Jordan said releasing the data under Labor's 2013 transparency laws helped build community trust in the taxation system.

"Community trust and confidence in the way these large companies operate matters," Jordan said.

"And tax should matter to these companies. It is not something to be taken lightly.

These 1,500 large corporates paid almost $40 billion in company tax in the 2014 fiscal year, but most pay less than 5%."

Jordan said the ATO raises about $2 billion through investigating companies suspected of not paying their fair share of tax.

Peak groups and companies on the list contacted by Energy News has not returned calls this morning, but the Minerals Council of Australia timed the ATO's data release with a report of its own saying that royalties paid by the minerals sector to state governments in 2014-15 accounted for two dollars in every three of the total tax take from the minerals sector.

Royalties are largely payable irrespective of profitability and have provided a secure source of income for the states during this down cycle.

Despite the low oil price, as LNG exports ramp up the gas sector is set to deliver nearly $500 million dollars in royalties in 2018-19, but the outlook for the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax is not healthy.

The multinationals, including Shell and Chevron Corporation, which saw billions of dollars of revenue flow into their coffers, drew widespread criticism for failing to pay a cent in the PRRT.

Introduced by the Keating government in the 1990s, the tax was designed to share profits from Australia's Gippsland Basin with the public purse, and has since been expanded to take in the North West Shelf, and was supposed to cover all onshore production.

But the ATO data shows that the PRRT raised $1.7 billion in 2013-14, but that came from BHP ($970 million), ExxonMobil ($540 million) and Woodside ($85 million).

Names such as Shell and Chevron - the latter is involved in a spat with the ATO over its tax bill - are missing.

There are possible reasons for that: a lack of taxable income and tax dedications for exploration plus tax and revenue arrangements, all of which mean the PRRT is expected to flatline for the next decade, despite $60 billion in gas-related investments coming into production during that period.

Fairfax media has reported that the data suggests the effective rate of PRRT being paid has plummeted from 24% of total industry revenues in 2003-04 to just 5% in 2013-14, falling to 2% in 2018-19.

Activity group Get Up! targeted the "dirty energy companies" topping the list of companies shirking their responsibility to pay tax in Australia.

"The polluting energy companies game the tax system to avoid paying their fair share, pay no price for polluting our air and water, and receive billions per year in subsidies from the community," GetUp! campaign director Mark Connelly said.

"What do Australians need to know about this report? You paid more tax than 579 major corporations last year. You paid more tax than half of the major foreign corporations operating in Australia last year."

He called on the government to no longer turn a blind eye to the "systemic pipeline pumping billions in potential tax dollars to tax havens and the pockets of overseas investors".

"Every dollar of tax not paid by companies like Chevron Australia Holdings, ExxonMobil Australia, Adani Abbot Point Terminal Holdings, and Whitehaven Coal means something taken away from everyday Australians, like weakening our schools and decimating our hospitals," Connelly said.

Industry response

The Australian Industry Group says it is easy for the raw numbers to be misinterpreted and misused as tax iss a complicated issue.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association said the claims big oil is not paying its share of tax are predictable and wrong.

"Over the last decade, the level of tax paid (both company tax and resource taxes) has averaged around 50 per cent of the industry's pre-tax profit. This is far higher than most other industries in Australia," APPEA claimed.

It said the sector had paid an estimated $250 billion in taxes and resource charges to governments across Australia since the 1970s, many of which were not included in the information released in the ATO's corporate tax transparency report.

APPEA said the unprecedented upfront investments in new capacity and very low commodity prices naturally reduced profits and tax payments

"When there are no profits to tax - such as during a project's construction or early production phases - no tax is owed. Projects with significant investment costs will take many years before all of these costs are recovered and the first profits are made," the peak lobby group said.

Chevron has made similar statements in the past, defending its tax structure.

The group was also critical of reporting around the PRRT, saying they are not the primary resource charge for many projects.

"The contribution of the oil and gas industry is more than just the taxes paid from year to year. With more than $200 billion in new gas export projects underway, Australia will reap enduring benefits for generations to come," APPEA said.