Major petroleum companies

Supermajors :-

BP

Type Public limited company

Traded as LSE: BP NYSE: BP

Industry Oil and natural gas, alternative fuels

Founded

1909 (as the Anglo-Persian Oil

Company)

1954 (as the British Petroleum

Company)

1998 (merger of British Petroleum and

Amoco)

Headquarters London, United Kingdom

Area served Worldwide

Key people

Carl-Henric Svanberg (Chairman)

Bob Dudley (CEO)

Byron Grote (CFO)[1]

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Products

BP petroleum and derived products

BP service stations

Air BP Aviation Fuels

Castrol motor oil

ARCO gas stations

am/pm convenience stores

Aral service stations solar panels

Revenue US $308.9 billion (2010)

Operating income US $-3.7 billion (2010)

Net income US $-3.3 billion (2010)

Total assets US $272.2 billion (2010)

Total equity US $94.98 billion (2010)

Employees 79,700 (2010)

Website BP.com

BP p.l.c. (LSE: BP, NYSE: BP) is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". It is vertically-integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It also has major renewable energy activities, including in biofuels, hydrogen, solar and wind power.

BP has operations in over 80 countries, produces around 3.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and has 22,400 service stations worldwide. Its largest division is BP America, which is the biggest producer of oil and gas in the United States and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. As at 31 December 2009 it had total proven commercial reserves of 18.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The name "BP" derives from the initials of one of the company's former legal names, British Petroleum.

BP's track record of corporate social responsibility has been mixed. The company has been involved in a number of major environmental and safety incidents and received criticism for its political influence. However, in 1997, it became the first major oil company to publicly acknowledge the need to take steps against climate change, and in that year established a company-wide target to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases. BP currently invests over

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$1 billion per year in the development of renewable energy sources, and has committed to spend $8 billion on renewables in the 2005 to 2015 period.

Its primary listing is on the London Stock Exchange and it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

History

Activity in 1909–1979

A 1922 BP advertisement

In May 1901, William Knox D'Arcy was granted a concession by the Shah of Iran to search for oil, which he discovered in May 1908. This was the first commercially significant find in the Middle East. On 14 April 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was incorporated as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company to exploit this. In 1935, it became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC).

Following World War II, AIOC and the Iranian government initially resisted nationalist pressure to revise AIOC's concession terms still further in Iran's favour. But in March 1951, the pro-western Prime Minister Ali Razmara was assassinated. The Majlis of Iran (parliament) elected a nationalist, Mohammed Mossadeq, as prime minister. In April, the Majlis nationalised the oil industry by unanimous vote. The National Iranian Oil Company was formed as a result, displacing the AIOC. The AIOC withdrew its management from Iran, and organised an effective 3 | P a g e

boycott of Iranian oil. The British government – which owned the AIOC – contested the nationalisation at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, but its complaint was dismissed.

By spring of 1953, incoming US President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorised the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to organise a coup against the Mossadeq government with support from the British government. On 19 August 1953, Mossadeq was forced from office by the CIA conspiracy, involving the Shah and the Iranian military, and known by its codename, Operation Ajax.

Mossadeq was replaced by pro-Western general Fazlollah Zahedi and the Shah, who returned to Iran after having left the country briefly to await the outcome of the coup. The Shah abolished the democratic Constitution and assumed autocratic powers.

After the coup, Mossadeq's National Iranian Oil Company became an international consortium, and AIOC resumed operations in Iran as a member of it. The consortium agreed to share profits on a 50–50 basis with Iran, "but not to open its books to Iranian auditors or to allow Iranians onto its board of directors." AIOC, as a part of the Anglo-American coup d'état deal, was not allowed to monopolise Iranian oil as before. It was limited to a 40% share in a new international consortium. For the rest, 40% went to the five major American companies and 20% went to Royal Dutch Shell and Compagnie Française des Pétroles, now Total S.A..

The AIOC became the British Petroleum Company in 1954. In 1959, the company expanded beyond the Middle East to Alaska and in 1965 it was the first company to strike oil in the North Sea. In 1978 the company acquired a controlling interest in Standard Oil of Ohio or Sohio, a breakoff of the former Standard Oil that had been broken up after anti-trust litigation.

It continued to operate in Iran until the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The new regime of Ayatollah Khomeini confiscated all of the company’s assets in Iran without compensation, bringing to an end its 70-year presence in Iran.

1980s and 1990s

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Classic shield logo, designed by Raymond Loewy and used from 1989 to 2002

Sir Peter Walters was the company chairman from 1981 to 1990. This was the era of the Thatcher government's privatisation strategy. The British government sold its entire holding in the company in several tranches between 1979 and 1987. The sale process was marked by an attempt by the Kuwait Investment Authority, the investment arm of the Kuwait government, to acquire control of the company. This was ultimately blocked by the strong opposition of the British government. In 1987, British Petroleum negotiated the acquisition of Britoiland the remaining publicly traded shares of Standard Oil of Ohio.

Walters was replaced by Robert Horton in 1989. Horton carried out a major corporate down-sizing exercise removing various tiers of management at the Head Office.

Standard Oil of California and Gulf Oil merged in 1984, the largest merger in history at that time. Under the antitrust regulation, SoCal divested many of Gulf's operating subsidiaries, and sold some Gulf stations and a refinery in the eastern United States.

John Browne, who had been on the board as managing director since 1991, was appointed group chief executive in 1995. Browne was responsible for three major acquisitions; Amoco, ARCO and Burmah-Castrol (see below).

21st century

British Petroleum merged with Amoco (formerly Standard Oil of Indiana) in December 1998, becoming BP Amoco plc. In 2000, BP Amoco acquired Arco (Atlantic Richfield Co.) and Burmah Castrol plc. As part of the merger's brand awareness, the company helped the Tate Modern British Art launch RePresenting Britain 1500–2000 In 2001, the company formally renamed itself as BP plc and adopted the tagline "Beyond Petroleum," which remains in use today. It states that BP was never meant to be an abbreviation of its tagline. Most Amoco stations in the United States were converted to BP's brand and corporate identity. In many states BP continued to sell Amoco branded petrol even in service stations with the BP identity as Amoco was rated the best petroleum brand by consumers for 16 consecutive years and also enjoyed one of the three highest brand loyalty reputations for petrol in the US, comparable only to Chevron and Shell. In May 2008, when the Amoco name was mostly phased out in favour of "BP Gasoline with Invigorate", promoting BP's new additive, the highest grade of BP petrol available in the United States was still called Amoco Ultimate.

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Chief scientist, Steven Koonin (top right, with laptop), speaks about the energy scene in the boardroom in 2005.

In April 2004, BP decided to move most of its petrochemical businesses into a separate entity called Innovene within the BP Group. BP sought to sell the new company possibly via an initial public offering (IPO) in the US, and filed IPO plans for Innovene with the New York Stock Exchange on 12 September 2005. On 7 October 2005 BP announced that it had agreed to sell Innovene to INEOS, a privately held UK chemical company for $9 billion, thereby scrapping its plans for the IPO In 2005, BP announced that it would be leaving the Colorado market. Many locations were rebranded as Conoco.

Westlake Park in the Energy Corridor area of Houston has BP America's headquarters

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In 2006, when Chevron Corporation gave exclusive rights to the Texaco brand name in the US Texaco sold most of the BP gas stations in the southeast. BP has recently looked to grow its oil exploration activities in frontier areas such as the former Soviet Union for its future reserves. In Russia, BP owns 50% of TNK-BP with the other half owned by three Russian billionaires. TNK-BP accounts for a fifth of BP's global reserves, a quarter of BP's production, and nearly a tenth of its global profits.

In 2007, BP sold its corporate-owned convenience stores, typically known as "BP Connect", to local franchisees and jobbers.

On 12 January 2007, it was announced that Lord Browne would retire as chief executive at the end of July 2007. The new Chief Executive, Tony Hayward, had been head of exploration and production. It had been expected that Lord Browne would retire in February 2008 when he reached the age of 60, the standard retirement age at BP. Browne resigned abruptly from BP on 1 May 2007, following the lifting of a legal injunction preventing Associated Newspapers from publishing details about his private life. Hayward succeeded Browne with immediate effect.

On 1 October 2010, Bob Dudley replaced Tony Hayward as the company's CEO.

On 15 January 2011, Rosneft and BP announced a deal to jointly develop East-Prinovozemelsky field on the Russian arctic shelf. As part of the deal, Rosneft will receive 5% of BP's shares (worth approximately $7.8 billion, as of January 2011) and BP will get approximately 9.5% of Rosneft's shares in exchange. According to the deal, the two companies will also create an Arctic technology centre in Russia to develop technologies and engineering practices for safe arctic hydrocarbons extraction.

In February 2011, BP formed a partnership with Reliance Industries, taking a 30 percent stake in a new Indian joint-venture for an initial payment of $7.2 billion.

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Corporate affairs

Governance

BP head office in St. James's, City of Westminster

The Board Members are:

Carl-Henric Svanberg – Chairman Byron Grote – Chief Financial Officer Andy Inglis – Chief executive, Exploration and Production Antony Burgmans – Non-executive director, board of Mauritshuis, AEGON, Unilever Cynthia Carroll – Non-executive director, CEO of Anglo American, also board of De

Beers Sir William Castell – Non-executive director chairman of The Prince’s Trust Paul Anderson – Non-executive director Robert Dudley – CEO (as of 1 October 2010) Iain Conn George David vice-chairman of the Peterson Institute for International Economics Ian Davis – Non-executive director Douglas Flint, CBE director HSBC Dr DeAnne Julius, director of Chatham House David Jackson, company secretary

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Financial data

Financial data in millions of US$Year 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Sales 180,186 236,045 294,849 249,465 265,906 284,365 361,341 239,272EBITDA 22,941 28,200 37,825 41,453 44,835Net results 6,845 10,267 15,961 22,341 22,000 20,845 21,157 16,578Net debt 20,273 20,193 21,607 16,202 16,202

Company name

Until 31 December 1998 the company was formally registered as the British Petroleum Company plc. Following a merger with Amoco the company adopted the name BP Amoco plc in January 1999, which was retained until May 2001 when the company was renamed BP p.l.c. In the first quarter of 2001 the company adopted the marketing name of BP, replaced its “Green Shield” logo with the Helios symbol, a green and yellow sunflower pattern, and introduced a new corporate slogan – “Beyond Petroleum”. The transition to the name and logo was managed by the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather and the PR consultants, Ogilvy PR. The Helios logo (Helios is the name of the Greek sun god), is designed to represent energy in its many forms. BP's tagline, "Beyond Petroleum", according to the company represents their focus on meeting the growing demand for fossil fuels, manufacturing and delivering more advanced products, and enabling the material transition to a lower carbon future.

A BP service station in Ohio, United States showing the previous 'Green Shield' branding

In July 2006, critics pointed to the relative lack of press coverage about a spill of 270,000 gallons of crude oil that spread into the Alaskan tundra, noting this as evidence that BP had successfully greenwashed its image, while maintaining environmentally unsound practices. BP also put plans on hold to market a fuel that is 85% Ethanol and 15% Butanol (E85B), so existing internal combustion engines could run on a 100% renewable fuel. The lack of follow-through was cited as another example of BP's greenwashing. (Butanol can be used in internal combustion engines, but BP has no infrastructure to produce Butanol from biomass sources).

In 2008, BP was awarded a satirical prize, the "Emerald Paintbrush" award, from Greenpeace UK. The "Emerald Paintbrush" award was given to BP in order to highlight its alleged greenwashing campaign. Critics point out that while BP advertises its activities in alternative

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energy sources, the majority of its capital investments continue to go into fossil fuels. BP was also one nominee for the 2009 Greenwash Awards.

By the end of July 2010, independent BP station owners reported sales down 10 to 40 percent in the quarter after the Gulf oil spill and, while some hoped BP would return to the Amoco brand once used by many of the stations, others considered that would be a gamble because BP put so much effort into the brand.

Operations

Exploration and Production

BP's Exploration and Production division is responsible for the discovery, production and transportation of oil and gas to market. It operates in around 30 countries and employs more than 20,000 people.

Refining and Marketing

BP's Refining and Marketing division is responsible for the supply and trading, refining, marketing and transportation of oil, gas and petroleum products.

Air BP

A self-service Air BP fueling station at the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport

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Air BP is the aviation division of BP, providing aviation fuel, lubricants & services. It has operations in over 50 countries worldwide.

BP Shipping

BP Shipping provides the logistics to move BP's oil and gas cargoes to market, as well as marine structural assurance on everything that floats in the BP group. It manages a large fleet of vessels most of which are held on long-term operating leases. BP Shipping's chartering teams based in London, Singapore, and Chicago also charter third party vessels on both time charter and voyage charter basis.

The BP-managed fleet consists of Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), one North Sea shuttle tanker, medium size crude and product carriers, liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers, and coasters. All of these ships are double-hulled.

Castrol

Castrol is a brand of industrial and automotive lubricants which is applied to a large range of BP oils, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications.

Service stations

ampm

ampm is a convenience store chain with branches located in several US states including Arizona, California, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, recently in Illinois, Indiana, Georgia and Florida, and in several countries worldwide such as Japan. In the western US, the stores are usually attached to an ARCO gas station; elsewhere, the stores are attached to BP gas stations. BP Connect stations in the US are transitioning to the ampm brand.

Aral

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An Aral service station in Germany

In Germany and Luxembourg, BP operates its petrol retail chain under the name Aral after acquiring the majority of Veba Öl AG in 2001 and rebranding almost all of its BP filling stations to Aral.

ARCO

ARCO is BP's retail brand on the US West Coast in the seven Western states of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, and Utah. BP acquired ARCO (formerly the Atlantic Richfield Company) in 2000. ARCO is a popular "cash only" retailer, selling products refined from Alaska North Slope crude at the Cherry Point Refinery in Washington, a plant in Los Angeles, and at other contract locations on the West Coast.

BP Connect

BP Connect is BP's flagship retail brand name with BP Connect Service stations being operated around the UK, Europe, USA, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world. BP Connect sites feature the Wild Bean Cafe, which offers cafe-style coffee made by the staff and a selection of hot food as well as freshly baked muffins and sandwiches. The food offered in Wild Bean Cafe varies from each site. BP Connect sites usually offer table and chair seating and often an Internet kiosk. In the US, the BP Connect concept is gradually being transitioned to the ampm brand and concept. Some BP Connect sites around the UK ran in partnership with Marks & Spencer with the on-site shop being an M&S Simply Food instead of a BP Shop.

BP Express

In the Netherlands, BP is opening unmanned stations with no shops or employees. These stations are called BP Express. Some of these stations used to be 'ordinary' BP stations and others are new to the BP network. Apart from these stations, BP Express shopping does also exist in the Netherlands.

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BP 2go

A BP 2go branded service station in Australia

BP 2go is a franchise brand used for independently operated sites in New Zealand and is currently being rolled out throughout Australia (although not all BP 2go stores are franchises in Australia). BP 2go sites mainly operate in towns and outer suburbs in New Zealand. BP 2go offers similar bakery food to BP Connect but in a pre-packaged form. Some BP Express sites around New Zealand and Australia that were considered too small to be upgraded to BP Connect were given the option to change to BP 2go; others were downgraded to BP Shop. Staff at some BP 2go sites wear a different style of uniform to the rest of the BP branded sites; however in company-owned and operated 2go sites in Australia the same uniform is worn across all sites.

BP Travel Centre

BP Travel Centres are large-scale destination sites located in Australia which, on top of offering the same features of a BP Connect site with fuel and a Wild Bean Cafe, also feature major food-retail tenants such as McDonald's, KFC, Nando's and recently Krispy Kreme, with a large seating capacity food court. There are also facilities for long-haul truck drivers, including a lounge, showers and washing machines all in the same building. There are 4 travel centers located in South East Queensland: two on the Pacific Highway (Coomera and Stapylton) and two on the Bruce Highway (Caboolture). A fifth travel centre was opened in 2007 at Chinderah in northern New South Wales.

Corporate social responsibility

Environmental record

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A Gulf petrol station in Louisville, Kentucky using the previous BP prototype. BP purchased all Gulf stations in the southeastern United States in 1980s after Chevron, Inc. was forced to divest the stations by the United States Justice Department.

BP was named by Mother Jones Magazine, an investigative journal that "exposes the evils of the corporate world, the government, and the mainstream media", as one of the ten worst corporations in both 2001 and 2005 based on its environmental and human rights records. In 1991 BP was cited as the most polluting company in the US based on EPA toxic release data. BP has been charged with burning polluted gases at its Ohio refinery (for which it was fined $1.7 million), and in July 2000 BP paid a $10 million fine to the EPA for its management of its US refineries. According to PIRG research, between January 1997 and March 1998, BP was responsible for 104 oil spills. BP patented the Dracone Barge to aid in oil spill clean-ups across the world.

As of 11 February 2007, BP announced that it would spend $8 billion over ten years to research alternative methods of fuel, including natural gas, hydrogen, solar, and wind. A $500 million grant to the University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, to create an Energy Biosciences Institute[72] has recently come under attack, over concerns about the global impacts of the research and privatisation of public universities.

BP's investment in green technologies peaked at 4% of its exploratory budget, but they have since closed their alternative energy headquarters in London. As such they invest more than other oil companies, but it has been called greenwashing due to the small proportion of the overall budget. BP was a nominee for the 2009 Greenwash Awards for deliberately exaggerating its environmental credentials. According to Greenpeace BP invested in 2008 $20 mrd. in fossil energy and $1.5 mrd. in renewable energy.

In 2004, BP began marketing low-sulphur diesel fuel for industrial use.

Renewable energy

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Solar panel made by BP Solar

BP Solar is a leading producer of solar panels since its purchase of Lucas Energy Systems in 1980 and Solarex (as part of its acquisition of Amoco) in 2000. BP Solar had a 20% world market share in photovoltaic panels in 2004 when it had a capacity to produce 90 MW/year of panels. It has over 30 years' experience operating in over 160 countries with manufacturing facilities in the US, Spain, India and Australia, and has more than 2000 employees worldwide. BP has closed its US plants in Frederick, Maryland as part of a transition to manufacturing in China. This is due in part to China's upswing in solar use and the protectionist laws that require 85% of the materials to be produced in China. Through a series of acquisitions in the solar power industry BP Solar became the third largest producer of solar panels in the world. It was recently announced that BP has obtained a contract for a pilot project to provide on-site solar power to Wal-Mart stores.

Between 2005 and 2010, BP invested about $5 billion in its renewable energy business, mainly in biofuel and wind power projects. In 2011, BP plans to invest $1 billion in renewables, roughly the same amount it invested last year.

As of 2011, BP is planning to construct a biofuel refinery in the Southeastern US and has also acquired Verenium’s cellulosic biofuels business for $98 million. In Brazil, BP holds a 50 percent stake in Tropical BioEnergia and plans to operate two ethanol refineries. In the US BP has more than 1,200 megawatts (MW) of wind-powered electricity capacity and in July 2010 it began construction of the 250 MW Cedar Creek II Wind Farm in Colorado.

Climate change

BP was a founding sponsor of the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit in 1971, the research unit that was at the center of the Climategate scandal in November 2009.

BP Amoco was a member of the Global Climate Coalition an industry organisation established to promote global warming scepticism but withdrew in 1997, saying "the time to consider the policy dimensions of climate change is not when the link between greenhouse gases and climate

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change is conclusively proven, but when the possibility cannot be discounted and is taken seriously by the society of which we are part. We in BP have reached that point.".

In March 2002, Lord Browne of Madingley declared in a speech that global warming was real and that urgent action was needed, saying that "Companies composed of highly skilled and trained people can't live in denial of mounting evidence gathered by hundreds of the most reputable scientists in the world."

BP is a sponsor of the Scripps Institution CO2 program to measure carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

1993–1995: Hazardous substance dumping

In September 1999, one of BP’s US subsidiaries, BP Exploration Alaska (BPXA), agreed to resolve charges related to the illegal dumping of hazardous wastes on the Alaska North Slope, for $22 million. The settlement included the maximum $500,000 criminal fine, $6.5 million in civil penalties, and BP’s establishment of a $15 million environmental management system at all of BP facilities in the US and Gulf of Mexico that are engaged in oil exploration, drilling or production. The charges stemmed from the 1993 to 1995 dumping of hazardous wastes on Endicott Island, Alaska by BP’s contractor Doyon Drilling. The firm illegally discharged waste oil, paint thinner and other toxic and hazardous substances by injecting them down the outer rim, or annuli, of the oil wells. BPXA failed to report the illegal injections when it learned of the conduct, in violation of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.

2006–2007: Prudhoe Bay

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In August 2006, BP shut down oil operations in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, due to corrosion in pipelines leading up to the Alaska Pipeline. The wells were leaking insulating agent called Arctic pack, consisting of crude oil and diesel fuel, between the wells and ice. BP had spilled over one million litres of oil in Alaska's North Slope. This corrosion is caused by sediment collecting in the bottom of the pipe, protecting corrosive bacteria from chemicals sent through the pipeline to fight these bacteria. There are estimates that about 5,000 barrels (790 m3) of oil were released from the pipeline. To date 1,513 barrels (240.5 m3) of liquids, about 5,200 cubic yards (4,000 m3) of soiled snow and 328 cubic yards (251 m3) of soiled gravel have been recovered. After approval from the DOT, only the eastern portion of the field was shut down, resulting in a reduction of 200,000 barrels per day (32,000 m3/d) until work began to bring the eastern field to full production on 2 October 2006.

In May 2007, the company announced another partial field shutdown owing to leaks of water at a separation plant. Their action was interpreted as another example of fallout from a decision to cut maintenance of the pipeline and associated facilities.

On 16 October 2007, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation officials reported a toxic spill of methanol (methyl alcohol) at the Prudhoe Bay oil field managed by BP PLC. Nearly 2,000 gallons of mostly methanol, mixed with some crude oil and water, spilled onto a frozen tundra pond as well as a gravel pad from a pipeline. Methanol, which is poisonous to plants and animals, is used to clear ice from the insides of the Arctic-based pipelines.

2010: Texas City chemical leak

Two weeks prior to the Deepwater Horizon explosion, BP admitted that malfunctioning equipment lead to the release of over 530,000 lbs of chemicals into the air of Texas City and surrounding areas from 6 April to 16 May. The leak included 17,000 pounds of benzene (a

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known carcinogen), 37,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides (which contribute to respiratory problems), and 186,000 pounds of carbon monoxide.

2010: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Deepwater Horizon oil spill and Deepwater Horizon explosion

Anchor handling tugs combat the fire on the Deepwater Horizon while the United States Coast Guard searches for missing crew.

On 20 April 2010, the semi-submersible exploratory offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded after a blowout; it sank two days later, killing 11 people. This blowout in the Macondo Prospect field in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in a partially capped oil well one mile below the surface of the water. Experts estimate the gusher to be flowing at 35,000 to 60,000 barrels per day (5,600 to 9,500 m3/d) of oil. The exact flow rate is uncertain due to the difficulty of installing measurement devices at that depth and is a matter of ongoing debate. The resulting oil slick covers at least 2,500 square miles (6,500 km2), fluctuating from day to day depending on weather conditions. It threatens the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Florida.

The drilling rig was owned and operated by Transocean Ltdon behalf of BP, which is the majority owner of the Macondo oil field. At the time of the explosion, there were 126 crew on board; seven were employees of BP and 79 of Transocean. There were also employees of various other companies involved in the drilling operation, including Anadarko, Halliburton and M-I Swaco.

The US Government has named BP the responsible party, and officials have committed to hold the company accountable for all cleanup costs and other damage. BP has stated that it would harness all of its resources to battle the oil spill, spending $7 million a day with its partners to try 18 | P a g e

to contain the disaster. In comparison, BP's 1st quarter profits for 2010 were approximately $61 million per day. BP has agreed to create a $20 billion spill response fund administered by Kenneth Feinberg. The amount of this fund is not a cap or a floor on BP's liabilities. BP will pay $3 billion in third quarter of 2010 and $2 billion in fourth quarter into the fund followed by a payment of $1.25 billion per quarter until it reaches $20 billion. In the interim, BP posts its US assets worth $20 billion as bond. For the fund's payments, BP will cut its capital spending budget, sell $10 billion in assets, and drop its dividend. BP has also been targeted in litigation over the claims process it put in place for victims. A class action lawsuit was filed against BP and its initial claims administrator, the ACE, Ltd. Insurance Group company ESIS.

BP began testing the tighter-fitted cap designed to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from a broken well for the first time in almost three months. The test began Wednesday, 14 July with BP shutting off pipes that were funnelling some of the oil to ships on the surface, so the full force of the gusher went up into the cap. Then deep-sea robots began slowly closing – one at a time – three openings in the cap that let oil pass through. Ultimately, the flow of crude was stopped. All along, engineers were and still are watching pressure readings to learn whether the well is intact. Former coast guard admiral Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point man on the disaster, said the government gave the testing go-ahead after carefully reviewing the risks. "What we didn't want to do is compound that problem by making an irreversible mistake," he said.

Stock decline and takeover speculations

Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, BP's stock fell by 52% in 50 days on the New York Stock Exchange, going from $60.57 on 20 April 2010, to $29.20 on 9 June, its lowest level since August 1996. There were speculations in the press, guided by the commentary of Fred Lucas, Energy Analyst at J.P. Morgan Cazenove, that there would be a takeover of the company, focusing on possible bids from Exxon or Shell at a presumed price of £88 billion. In addition, BP executives held talks with a number of sovereign wealth funds including funds from Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Qatar and Singapore, for creation of a strategic partnership to avoid takeover by other major oil companies. BP has either rejected or refused to react to these overtures.

On 27 July 2010, BP announced a net loss of $16.97 billion during the second quarter of 2010, with the oil spill costing $32.2 billion up to that point. Also on 27 July 2010, BP confirmed that CEO Hayward would resign and be replaced by Bob Dudley on 1 October 2010.

Mist mountain project

There have been some calls by environmental groups for BP to halt its "Mist Mountain" Coalbed Methane Project in the Southern Rocky Mountains of British Columbia and for the UN to investigate the mining activities. The proposed 500 km² project is directly adjacent to the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

Canadian oil sands

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BP is one of numerous firms who are extracting oil from Canadian oil sands, a process that produces four times as much CO2 as conventional drilling. The Cree First Nation describe this as 'the biggest environmental crime on the planet'.

Safety record

1965: Sea Gem offshore oil rig disaster

In December 1965, while the BP oil rig Sea Gem was being moved, two of its legs collapsed and the rig capsised. Thirteen crew were killed. Sea Gem was the first British offshore oil rig.

2005: Texas City Refinery explosion

In March 2005, BP's Texas City, Texas refinery, one of its largest refineries, exploded causing 15 deaths, injuring 180 people and forcing thousands of nearby residents to remain sheltered in their homes. A large column filled with hydrocarbon overflowed to form a vapour cloud, which ignited. The explosion caused all the casualties and substantial damage to the rest of the plant. The incident came as the culmination of a series of less serious accidents at the refinery, and the engineering problems were not addressed by the management. Maintenance and safety at the plant had been cut as a cost-saving measure, the responsibility ultimately resting with executives in London.

The fallout from the accident continues to cloud BP's corporate image because of the mismanagement at the plant. There have been several investigations of the disaster, the most recent being that from the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board[118] which "offered a scathing assessment of the company." OSHA found "organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation" and said management failures could be traced from Texas to London.

The company pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Air Act, was fined $50 million, and sentenced to three years probation.

On 30 October 2009, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined BP an additional $87 million—the largest fine in OSHA history—for failing to correct safety hazards revealed in the 2005 explosion. Inspectors found 270 safety violations that had been previously cited but not fixed and 439 new violations. BP is appealing that fine).

2006–2010: Refinery fatalities and safety violations

From January 2006 to January 2008, three workers were killed at the company's Texas City, Texas refinery in three separate accidents. In July 2006 a worker was crushed between a pipe stack and mechanical lift, in June 2007, a worker was electrocuted, and in January 2008, a worker was killed by a 500-pound piece of metal that came loose under high pressure and hit him.

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Facing scrutiny after the Texas City Refinery explosion, two BP-owned refineries in Texas City, and Toledo, were responsible for 97 percent (829 of 851) of wilful safety violations by oil refiners between June 2007 and February 2010, as determined by inspections by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Jordan Barab, deputy assistant secretary of labour at OSHA, said "The only thing you can conclude is that BP has a serious, systemic safety problem in their company."

Disclosed US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks revealed that BP had covered up a gas leak and blowout incident in September 2008 at a gas field under production in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshi area of the Azerbaijan Caspian Sea. According to the cables, BP was lucky to have been able to evacuate everyone safely given the explosive potential. BP did not only hold back information to the public about the incident but even upset its partner firms in limiting the information shared. In January 2009, BP blaimed a bad cement job as the cause for the incident. The Guardian noted a striking resemblance with the later oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

2009: North Sea helicopter accident

On 1 April 2009, a Bond Offshore Helicopters Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma ferrying workers from BP's platform in the Miller oilfield in the North Sea off Scotland crashed in good weather killing all 16 on board.

2010: Deepwater Horizon well explosion

The 20 April 2010 explosion on BP's offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in the deaths of eleven people and caused the biggest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.

Political record

2007: Propane price manipulation

Four BP energy traders in Houston were charged with manipulating prices of propane in October 2007. As part of the settlement of the case, BP paid the US government a $303 million fine, the largest commodity market settlement ever in the US. The settlement included a $125 million civil fine to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, $100 million to the Justice Department, $53.3 million to a restitution fund for purchasers of the propane BP sold, and $25 million to a US Postal Service consumer fraud education fund.

2008: Oil price manipulation

In May 2010, the Supreme Court of Arbitration of the Russian Federation agreed in support of the country’s antimonopoly service’s decision to a 1.1 billion Ruble fine ($35.2 million) against TNK/BP, a 50/50 joint venture, for abusing antitrust legislation and setting artificially high oil products prices in 2008, TNK and BP declined comment.

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Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline

BP has been criticised for its involvement with Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline due to human rights, environmental and safety concerns.

Colombian pipeline

In July 2006, a group of Colombian farmers won a multi-million pound settlement from BP after the company was accused of benefiting from a regime of terror carried out by Colombian government paramilitaries to protect the 450-mile (720 km) Ocensa pipeline.

Contributions to political campaigns

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, BP is the United States' hundredth largest donor to political campaigns, having contributed more than US$5 million since 1990, 72% and 28% of which went to Republican and Democratic recipients, respectively. BP has lobbied to gain exemptions from US corporate law reforms. Additionally, BP paid the Podesta Group, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm, $160,000 in the first half of 2007 to manage its congressional and government relations.

In February 2002, BP's chief executive, Lord Browne of Madingley, renounced the practice of corporate campaign contributions, noting: "That's why we've decided, as a global policy, that from now on we will make no political contributions from corporate funds anywhere in the world."

Despite this, in 2009 BP used nearly US$16 million to lobby US Congress, breaking the company's previous record (from 2008) of US$10.4 million.

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Chevron Corporation

Chevron Corporation

Type Public

Traded as

NYSE: CVX Euronext: CHTEX

Dow Jones Industrial Average

Component

IndustryOil and gasoline

Mining

Founded1879 as

Standard Oil of California

HeadquartersSan Ramon, California,

 United States

Area served Worldwide

Key peopleJohn S. Watson

(Chairman and CEO)

Products

Oil

Petroleum

Natural gas

Petrochemical

Fuel

Lubricant

List of marketing brands

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Revenue US$ 204.928 billion (2010)

Operating income US$ 32.055 billion (2010)

Net income US$ 19.136 billion (2010)

Total assets US$ 184.769 billion (2010)

Total equity US$ 105.811 billion (2010)

Employees 62,000 (2010)

Website Chevron.com

Chart of the major energy companies dubbed "Big Oil" sorted by latest published revenue

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One view of the sprawling Chevron headquarters complex

Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX Euronext: CHTEX) is an American multinational energy corporation. Headquartered in San Ramon, California, and active in more than 180 countries, it is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining, marketing and transport; chemicals manufacturing and sales; and power generation. Chevron is one of the world's six "supermajor" oil companies. For the past five years, Chevron has been continuously ranked as one of America's 5 largest corporations by Fortune 500.

History

Chevron traditionally traces its roots to an oil discovery in Pico Canyon (now the Pico Canyon Oilfield) north of Los Angeles. The discovery led to the formation, in 1879, of the Pacific Coast Oil Company, the oldest predecessor of Chevron Corporation.

In 1895, the company initiated its enduring marine history when it launched California's first steel tanker, the George Loomis, which could ship 6,500 barrels of crude between Ventura and San Francisco. Another side of the genealogical chart points to the founding of The Texas Fuel Company in 1901, a modest enterprise that started out in three rooms of a corrugated iron building in Beaumont, Texas. This company was known as the Texas Company and later Texaco.

Chevron Corporation was originally known as Standard Oil of California, or SoCal, and was formed amid the antitrust breakup of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company in 1911. It was one of the "Seven Sisters" that dominated the world oil industry in the early 20th century. In 1933, Saudi Arabia granted SoCal a concession to find oil, and oil was found in 1938. In the early 1950s, SoCal discovered the world's largest oil field (Ghawar) in Saudi Arabia. SoCal's subsidiary, California-Arabian Standard Oil Company, developed over years, to become the

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Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) in 1944. In 1973, the Saudi government began buying into ARAMCO. By 1980, the company was entirely owned by the Saudis, and in 1988, the name was changed to Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco).

Standard Oil of California and Gulf Oil merged in 1984, the largest merger in history at that time. Under the antitrust regulation, SoCal divested many of Gulf's operating subsidiaries, and sold some Gulf stations and a refinery in the eastern United States. SoCal changed the name to Chevron Corporation.

In June 1992, Dynegy, Inc. (NYSE: DYN) was created from the merger of Chevron's former natural gas and natural gas liquids business with Dynegy's predecessor, NGC Corp. (formerly NYSE: NGL). NGC had been an integrated natural gas services company since around 1994.

In a merger completed February 1, 2000, Illinova Corp. (formerly NYSE: ILN) became a wholly owned subsidiary of Dynegy Inc., in which Chevron also took a 28% stake. However, Chevron in 2007 sold its 19 percent (at the time) common stock investment in the company for approximately $940 million, resulting in a gain of $680 million.

In 2001, Chevron Corporation acquired Texaco to form ChevronTexaco.

On May 9, 2005, ChevronTexaco announced it would drop the Texaco moniker and return to the Chevron name. Texaco remains as a brand under the Chevron Corporation. On August 19, 2005, Chevron acquired the Unocal Corporation. Because of Unocal's large South East Asian geothermal operations, Chevron became the world's largest producer of geothermal energy. On mid-2007,Chevron Corporation sold all Conoco stations in Mississippi to the Texaco brand a process to be complete at the end of 2007.

In July 2010, Chevron ended retail operations in the Mid Atlantic US, removing the Chevron and Texaco names from 1,100 stations in Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., and parts of Tennessee.

In November 9, 2010, Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX) acquired Pennsylvania based Atlas Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:ATLS) for $3.2 billion in cash and additional $1.1 billion in existing debt owed by Atlas.

Overview

Chevron employs approximately 67,000 people worldwide (of which 27,000 are U.S.-based) and had approximately 12 billion barrels (1.9 km³) of oil-equivalent net proved reserves at December 31, 2003. Daily production in 2003 was 2.5 million net oil-equivalent barrels (400,000 m³) per day. In addition, the company had a global refining capacity at year-end 2003 of 2.2 million barrels (350,000 m³) of crude oil per day. The company has a worldwide marketing network in 84 countries with approximately 24,000 retail sites, including those of affiliate companies. The company also has interests in 13 power generating assets in the United States, Asia, and Europe. Chevron also has gas stations in Western Canada.

Chevron was headquartered in San Francisco for nearly a century before it relocated across the bay to San Ramon, CA. The headquarters at 555 and 575 Market Street, built in the mid-1960s,

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in San Francisco were sold in December 1999. Its original headquarters were at 225 Bush St., built in 1912. Now, their headquarters are at 6001 Bollinger Canyon Road, San Ramon, CA.

Chevron is the owner of the Standard Oil trademark in 16 states in the western and southeastern U.S. To maintain ownership of the mark, the company owns and operates one Standard-branded Chevron station in each state of the area. Chevron also owns the trademark rights to Texaco brand gasoline. Chevron's network of wholesalers supplies Texaco fuels.

Several automakers, including General Motors and Toyota, use gasoline often from Chevron when they test vehicles. Ford uses Chevron gas also in North America, despite its strategic alliance with BP. Chevron also has often had one of the highest brand loyalty for gasoline in America, with only Shell and BP (through Amoco) having equally high loyalty.[citation needed]

Chevron Shipping Company is a wholly owned subsidiary company which handles the maritime transport operation for Chevron Corporation. The fleet comprises crude oil and product tankers, as well as three gas tankers operated by Chevron Shipping for other companies. The fleet is divided into two sections: The US fleet transports oil products from Chevron refineries to customers in the US. The ships are manned by US citizens and are flagged in the US. The International fleet vessels are flagged in the Bahamas and have officers and crews from many different nations. The largest ships are 308,000 tonne VLCCs. The job of the international fleet is to transport crude oil from the oilfields to the refineries. The international fleet mans two LPG tankers and one LNG tanker.

Chevron ships originally had names beginning with "Chevron", such as the Chevron Washington and Chevron South America, or were named after former or serving directors of the company. Samuel Ginn, William E Crain, and most notably Condoleezza Rice were amongst those honored, but the ship named after Rice was subsequently renamed as Altair Voyager. All the ships were renamed in 2001 to reflect the corporate merger with Texaco. Ships in the international fleet are all named after celestial bodies or constellations, such as Orion Voyager and Altair Voyager, and the American ships are named after the states in the country, as in Washington Voyager and Colorado Voyager.

Alternative energy

The company is developing technology for alternative energy, including fuel cells, photovoltaics, advanced batteries, and hydrogen fuel for transport and power.

Electric Vehicles

Chevron is currently squelching all access to large NiMH batteries through its control of patent licenses in order to remove a competitor to gasoline.This culminated in a lawsuit against Panasonic and Toyota over production of the EV-95 battery used in the RAV4 EV. However the Lithium-ion battery appears to be making up for this despite Chevron's best efforts, albeit, at a higher price.

Biofuels

Chevron is investing $300M USD a year into alternative fuel sources, and has created a biofuels business unit.

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Chevron and US-DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced that they had entered into a collaborative agreement to produce biofuels from algae. Chevron and NREL scientists would develop algae strains that can be economically harvested and processed into transportation fuels, such as jet fuel.

Solar Power

Chevron has invested in Solar Power such as the 500 kW Solarmine photovoltaic solar project in Fellows, California.

Controversies

Great American streetcar scandal

In 1950, then "Standard Oil" along with General Motors and Firestone were charged and convicted of criminal conspiracy for their part in the Great American streetcar scandal. The scandal included purchasing streetcar systems throughout the United States and dismantling and replacing them with buses,[18] in order to increase their sales of petroleum, automobiles and tires.

Tax evasion

Chevron was found to have evaded $3.25 billion in federal and state taxes from 1970 to 2000 through a complex petroleum pricing scheme involving a project in Indonesia. Chevron and Texaco, before they merged in 2001, each owned 50 percent of a joint venture called Caltex, which pulled crude oil from the ground in a project with the Indonesian state oil company, Pertamina. Chevron was accused of reducing its tax liabilities in the U.S. by buying oil from Caltex at inflated prices. One internal Chevron document set the price it paid Pertamina for oil at $4.55 a barrel higher than the prevailing market price. Chevron was then able to overstate deductions for costs on its U.S. income tax returns. Indonesia appeared to levy tax on this oil at 56%, a rate far higher than the corporate tax rate in the U.S. Because the United States gives companies a credit for taxes paid to foreign governments, tax paid to the Indonesian government reduces tax to the U.S. government.

Caltex transferred fund out of the U.S. to Indonesia, because the Indonesian government compensated Caltex for the excessively priced oil and the extra taxes paid by giving oil for free. Because Caltex had to pay taxes on that oil, too, the Indonesian government gave it even more oil to cover the taxes.

Environmental damage in Ecuador

From 1972 to 1993, Texaco operated development of the Lago Agrio oil field in Ecuador. Ecuadorian farmers and indigenous residents accused Texaco (now Chevron), of making residents ill and damaging forests and rivers by discharging 18 billion gallons of formation water into the rainforest, without any remediation. They sued Chevron for extensive environmental damage caused by these operations, which have sickened thousands of Ecuadorians and polluted the Amazon rainforest. The Ecuadorian court could have imposed a legal penalty of up to $28 billion in a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of Amazonian villagers in the region. Chevron

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claimed that agreements with the Ecuadorian Government exempted the company from any liabilities. A documentary on the issue, Crude, premiered in September 2009.

From 1977 until 1992 Texaco (Texpet), a subsidiary of Texaco Inc., was a minority member of this consortium with Petroecuador, the Ecuadorian state-owned oil company, as the majority partner. Since 1990, the operations have been conducted solely by Petroecuador. At the conclusion of the consortium and following an independent third-party environmental audit of the area, Texaco formally agreed with the Republic of Ecuador and Petroecuador to conduct a three year remediation program at a cost of $40 million. The government subsequently granted Texpet and all related corporate entities a full release from any and all environmental liability arising from its operations. Based on the history above, Chevron believes that "this lawsuit lacks legal or factual merit." However, water and soil samples taken by an Ecuadorean scientific team after Texaco departed in 1998 found almost half still contained unsafe levels of petroleum hydrocarbons.

On 15 February 2011, a court in Ecuador fined Chevron $8.6 billion over pollution to the country's Amazon region by Texaco between 1972 and 1992, with campaigners claiming loss of crops and farm animals as well as increased local cancer rates. The action was brought against Chevron by 30,000 Ecuadorean people, and is the first time that indigenous people have successfully sued a multinational corporation in the country where the pollution took place. The trial had begun in 2003. The total penalty imposed on Chevron is $9.5 billion as it was ruled that the oil company must pay an additional 10 per cent legally mandated reparations fee. $27 billion was the sum total requested by plaintiffs, $18.4 billion more than was eventually granted by the court. The Ecuadoreans expressed happiness that Chevron was declared guilty, though also expressed dismay that the award of $8.6 billion would not be enough to make up for the damage caused by the oil company. However, environmental activists wish this case to serve as a precedent against pollution causing business being carried out by firms in developing countries. Nonprofit organisation Amazon Watch described the outcome of the case as "unprecedented".Chevron described the lawsuit as an "extortion scheme" and refused to pay the fine. Chevron has no international obligation to pay, and no assets in Ecuador for the government to seize.

Pollution in Richmond, California

Chevron’s activities at its century-old Richmond refinery have been the subject of ongoing controversy. The project generated over 11 million pounds of toxic materials and caused more than 304 accidents. The Richmond refinery paid $540,000 in 1998 for illegally bypassing waste water treatments and failing to notify the public about toxic releases. Overall, Chevron is listed as potentially liable for 95 Superfund sites, with funds set aside by the EPA for clean-up. In October 2003, the state of New Hampshire sued Chevron and other oil companies for using MTBE, a gasoline additive that the attorney general claimed polluted much of the state's water supply.

Oil spills in Angola

Chevron's operations in Africa have also been criticized as environmentally unsound. In 2002, Angola became the first country in Africa ever to levy a fine on a major multinational corporation operating within its borders, when it demanded $2 million in compensation for oil spills allegedly caused by Chevron.

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Violation of the Clean Air Act in the USA

On October 16, 2003, Chevron U.S.A. settled a charge under the Clean Air Act, which reduced harmful air emissions by about 10,000 tons a year. In San Francisco, Chevron was filed by a consent decree to spend almost $275 million to install and utilize innovative technology to reduce nitrogen and sulfur dioxide emissions at its refineries. After violating the Clean Air Act at an offline loading terminal in El Segundo, California, Chevron paid a $6 million penalty as well as $1 million for environmental improvement projects. Chevron also had implemented programs that minimized production of hazardous gases, upgraded leak detection and repair procedure, reduced emissions from sulfur recovery plants, and adopted strategies to ensure the proper handling of harmful benzene wastes at refineries. Chevron also spent about $500,000 to install leakless valves and double-sealed pumps at its El Segundo refinery, which could prevent significant emissions of air contaminants.

Defenders of Chevron's environmental record point to recent changes in the corporation, particularly its pledge in 2004 to combat global warming.

NiMH battery technology for automobiles

ECD Ovonics founder, Stan Ovshinksy, and Dr. Masahiko Oshitani of the Yuasa Company, invented the NiMH technology used in hybrid vehicles . In 1994, General Motors acquired a controlling interest in Ovonics's battery development and manufacturing business. On October 10, 2001, Texaco purchased GM's share in GM Ovonics, and Chevron completed acquisition of Texaco six days later. In 2003, Texaco Ovonics Battery Systems was restructured into Cobasys, a 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) Ovonics.[40] Chevron's influence over Cobasys extends beyond a strict 50/50 joint venture. Chevron holds a 19.99% interest in ECD Ovonics. In addition, Chevron maintains the right to seize all of Cobasys' intellectual property rights in the event that ECD Ovonics does not fulfill its contractual obligations. On September 10, 2007, Chevron filed a legal claim that ECD Ovonics has not fulfilled its obligations. ECD Ovonics disputes this claim. Since that time, the arbitration hearing was repeatedly suspended while the parties negotiate with an unknown prospective buyer. No agreement has been reached with the potential buyer. Cobasys's patents relating to NiMH batteries expire in 2015.

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Sometimes gas stations have restaurants in them, such as this one in Chilliwack, British Columbia, which has a White Spot inside it.

In her book, Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America, published in February 2007, Sherry Boschert argues that large-format NiMH batteries are commercially viable but that Cobasys refuses to sell the batteries or license the technology to small companies or individuals. Boschert argues that Cobasys accepts only very large orders for the batteries. Major automakers showed little interest in placing large orders for large-format NiMH batteries. However, Toyota complained about the difficulty in getting smaller orders of large format NiMH batteries to service the existing 825 RAV-4EVs. Because no other companies were willing to place large orders, Cobasys was not manufacturing or licensing large format NiMH battery technology for automobiles. Boschert concludes that "it's possible that Cobasys (Chevron) is squelching all access to large NiMH batteries through its control of patent licenses in order to remove a competitor to gasoline. Or it's possible that Cobasys simply wants the market for itself and is waiting for a major automaker to start producing plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles."

In an interview with Economist, Ovshinsky subscribed to the former view. "I think we at ECD we made a mistake of having a joint venture with an oil company, frankly speaking. And I think it’s not a good idea to go into business with somebody whose strategies would put you out of business, rather than building the business."

In December 2006, Cobasys and General Motors announced that they had signed a contract under which Cobasys provides NiMH batteries for the Saturn Aura hybrid sedan.[46] In March 2007, GM announced that it would use Cobasys NiMH batteries in the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu hybrid as well.

In October 2007, International Acquisitions Services and Innovative Transportation Systems filed suit against Cobasys and its parents for refusing to fill an order for large-format NiMH batteries to be used in the electric Innovan.

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In August 2008, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International filed suit against Cobasys, on the ground Cobasys did not tender the batteries it agreed to build for Mercedes-Benz’s planned hybrid SUV.

Niger Delta shootings

On May 28, 1998, activists staged a demonstration and took several individuals hostage on a company oil platform in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Nigerian police and soldiers were allegedly flown in with Chevron helicopters Soldiers shot at the activists and subsequently two activists (Jola Ogungbeje and Aroleka Irowaninu) died from their wounds. Chevron describes the situation as "a violent occupation of private property by aggressors seeking to extort cash payments from the company."] The Nigerian government is reportedly 80% dependent upon oil production and is condemned by many for its reported treatment of environmentalists. The documentary "Drilling and Killing" covers these and other topics.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, allowing a lawsuit brought by victims and victims' families against Chevron to proceed, said that there may be evidence that Chevron has hired, supervised, and/or provided transportation to Nigerian military forces known for their "general history of committing abuses." In March 2008, the plaintiffs' lawyers, without explanation, "quietly moved to withdraw half of their claims" against Chevron.

On December 1, 2008, a federal jury cleared Chevron of all charges brought against them in the case. The jury deliberated for almost two days. Chevron had claimed that the military intervention was necessary to protect the lives of its workers and considers the jury's decision vindication for the accusations of wrongdoing.

UN sanctions

US Embassy Cable BAGHDAD 000791 relates to company negotiations re investment in Iran in contravention of UN sanctions. This document was intended to have been kept secret until 2029.

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New policy and development

Chevron's 500kW Solarmine photovoltaic solar project in Fellows, California

Chevron has taken steps to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and pursue cleaner forms of energy. It has scored highest among U.S. oil companies for investing in alternative energy sources and setting targets for reducing its own emissions and is the world's largest producer of geothermal energy, providing enough power for over 7 million homes.

Board of directors

As of January 2010:

John Watson (Chairman & CEO) Samuel Armacost Linnet F. Deily Robert Denham Robert James Eaton Sam Ginn Franklyn Jenifer Sam Nunn Donald Rice Peter Robertson Charles Shoemate Ronald Sugar

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Carl Ware

Condoleezza Rice is a former member of the board of directors, and also headed Chevron's committee on public policy until she resigned on January 15, 2001, to become National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush.

On September 30, 2009, John Watson, age 52, was elected Chairman of the Board and CEO, effective at the December 31, 2009 retirement of David J. O'Reilly

Marketing brands

The typical Chevron gas station design that was used until 2006.

In 2006, Chevron began phasing in this gas station design.

Fuel

Chevron Standard Oil (in limited circumstances) Texaco Caltex Unocal

Convenience stores

Star Mart Extra Mile Redwood Market

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Town Pantry

Lubricants

Delo (sold by Caltex and Chevron) Havoline (sold by Caltex and Texaco) Revtex (sold by Caltex) Ursa (sold by Texaco)

Fuel additives

Techron - Chevron, Texaco (phased in during 2005), Caltex (phased in during 2006 and later)

Clean System 3 - Texaco (phased out during 2005 in favor of Techron)

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ConocoPhillips

ConocoPhillips Company

Type Public

Traded as NYSE: COP

Industry Oil and Gasoline

Founded

August 30, 2002 (merger)

1875 (Conoco)

1917 (Phillips)

HeadquartersEnergy Corridor

Houston, Texas, U.S.

Area served Worldwide

Key peopleJames J. Mulva

(Chairman and CEO)

Products

Oil

Natural Gas

Petroleum

Lubricant

Petrochemical

List of marketing brands

Revenue US$ 198.655 billion (2010)

Operating income US$ 19.750 billion (2010)

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Net income US$ 11.358 billion (2010)

Total assets US$ 156.314 billion (2010)

Total equity US$ 69.109 billion (2010)

Employees 29,700 (December 2010)

Website ConocoPhillips.com

ConocoPhillips Company (NYSE: COP) is an American multinational energy corporation with its headquarters located in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas in the United States. It is also one of the Fortune 500 companies. ConocoPhillips is the fifth largest private sector energy corporation in the world and is one of the six "supermajor" vertically integrated oil companies. It sells fuel under the Conoco, Phillips 66 and Union 76 brands in North America, and Jet in Europe. ConocoPhillips was created through the merger of Conoco Inc. and the Phillips Petroleum Company on August 30, 2002.

Overview

ConocoPhillips employs approximately 33,800 people worldwide in nearly 40 countries. ConocoPhillips is the second-largest refiner in the United States, with crude oil processing capacity of approximately 2.0 MMBD; and the world’s fourth-largest nongovernment-controlled refiner, with crude oil processing capacity of nearly 2.7 MMBD globally.

History

Conoco Inc. was an American oil company founded in 1875 as the Continental Oil and Transportation Company. Based in Ogden, Utah, the company was a coal, oil, kerosene, grease and candles distributor in the West. Marland Oil Company (founded by exploration pioneer E. W. Marland) later acquired the assets (subject to liabilities) of Continental Oil Company, for a consideration of 2,317,266 shares of stock. On June 26, 1929, Marland Oil changed its name to Continental Oil Company and moved its headquarters to Ponca City, Oklahoma. The acquisition gave Conoco the red bar-and-triangle logo previously used by Marland. Conoco used the logo between 1930 and 1970, when the current red capsule logo was adopted.

In 2005, ConocoPhillips began rebranding its (Union) 76 gas stations, which Phillips had acquired from Tosco Corporation before the merger with Conoco. The move prompted a petition campaign by fans hoping to save the historic 76 orange ball signage. On January 20, 2007, a Wall Street Journal article on the petition campaign included a statement from ConocoPhillips that it was changing course and would save several dozen orange and blue 76 balls to give to museums. The company also announced that it would fabricate about 100 new 76 ball signs in the ConocoPhillips color scheme of red and blue, to be placed at select 76 stations.

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In March 2006, ConocoPhillips bought Wilhelmshavener Raffineriegesellschaft mbH in Germany.

In March 2006, ConocoPhillips bought Burlington Resources. On May 10, 2006, Richard Armitage, former deputy-secretary of the U.S. State

Department, was elected to the board of directors of the ConocoPhillips oil company. In 2007 the Chevron Corporation purchased all of the Conoco gas stations in Mississippi

to the Texaco brand, a process to be completed by the end of the year.

Chart of the major energy companies dubbed "Big Oil" sorted by latest published revenue

March 2011: At late 2009 the company has announced to sales the assets to increase returns for investors. It is included debt reduction and stock buy back. And at this month the program is enlarged up to $10 billion assets sales in the next 2 years.

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Business units

Tanker Fleets

ConocoPhillips has several subsidiary oil tanker fleets.

Polar Tankers is the US Flagged shipping arm of ConocoPhillips.

The Endeavour Class vessels were built by Avondale Shipyard, Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Avondale, Louisiana. They are double hull type tankers of 894.7 ft long (272.7 m) and 140,000 DWT

Polar Endeavour - 2001 Polar Resolution - 2002 Polar Discovery - 2003 Polar Adventure - 2004 Polar Enterprise - 2007

Exploration, Refining & Marketing

Recently, Bangladesh granted a string of nine offshore exploration gas blocks in the Bay of Bengal to ConocoPhillips. In February 2008, ConocoPhillips was selected for 8 blocks as a lone bidder.

ConocoPhillips operates 19 refineries around the world.

In the United States, the company operates Conoco, Phillips 66 and (Union) 76 stations. The 76 brand, long familiar in the western and southern U.S., was created by Union Oil Company of California (later Unocal) in 1932.

In Europe, ConocoPhillips operates Jet filling stations in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It sold its Jet stations in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia to its Russian affiliate, Lukoil. It uses the COOP identity in Switzerland, and in 2010 sold its Norwegian chain (and 40 Swedish stations) to the Finnish company St1.

The company formerly marketed under the ProJET brand name in Malaysia and Turkpetrol in Turkey.

Country Name Location Crude Processing Capacity (KBD)Wood River Refinery Roxana, IL 306Wilhelmshaven Refinery Wilhelmshaven 260Alliance Refinery Belle Chasse, LA 247Sweeny Refinery Old Ocean, TX 247

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Bayway Refinery Linden, NJ 238Lake Charles Refinery Westlake, LA 239Humber Refinery North Lincolnshire 265Ponca City Refinery Ponca City, OK 187Trainer Refinery Trainer, PA 185Borger Refinery* Borger, TX 146Los Angeles Refinery Carson/Wilmington, CA 139San Francisco Refinery Rodeo, CA 120Ferndale Refinery Ferndale, WA 105Santa Maria Refinery Arroyo Grande, CA 48Whitegate Refinery Cork 71Billings Refinery Billings, MT 118Melaka Refinery Melaka 58MIRO Refinery* Karlsruhe 56Czech Refineries* Kralupy & Litvínov 27

* Denotes joint ventures. Crude capacity reflects that proportion.

Environmental record

On April 11, 2007, ConocoPhillips became the first U.S. oil company to join the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, an alliance of big business and environmental groups. The partnership in January 2007 had advised President George W. Bush that mandatory emissions caps would be needed to reduce the flow of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. In 2007 ConocoPhillips announced it would spend $150 million that year on the research and development of new energy sources and technologies — a 50 percent increase in spending from 2006.

According to the Political Economy Research Institute, ConocoPhillips ranked 13th among U.S. corporate producers of air pollutions.

In 2003, ConocoPhillips was named as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by Green Alternative, an environmental group based in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The suit claimed that a number of foreign oil companies colluded with the Georgian government to induce authorities to approve a $3 billion pipeline without properly evaluating the environmental impact.

Headquarters

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The headquarters of ConocoPhillips are located in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. By 2002 the groups organizing the measure had selected Houston as the site of the headquarters. Governor of Oklahoma Frank Keating said that the move to Houston was "regrettable." The Journal Record stated that Archie Dunham, the CEO of Conoco Inc., "apparently highlighted the lack of direct international air travel from Oklahoma as a key drawback for the merged firm." The ConocoPhillips headquarters, originally the headquarters of Conoco Inc., was formerly known as the Conoco Center.

Aerial view of the ConocoPhillips headquarters

Products

ConocoPhilips is the fourth largest finished lubricants supplier in the United States. ConocoPhillips offers consumers four premier brands, including 76 Lubricants, Conoco, Phillips 66 and Kendall Motor Oil.

ExxonMobil

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Exxon Mobil Corporation

Type Public

Traded as

NYSE: XOM

Dow Jones Industrial Average

Component

S&P 500 Component

Industry Oil and gas

Founded

1999 (merger)

1911 (Standard Oil of New Jersey)

1911 (Standard Oil of New York)

1870 (Standard Oil)

Founder(s)John D. Rockefeller

(Standard Oil)

Headquarters Irving, Texas, U.S.

Area served Worldwide

Key people

Rex W. Tillerson

(Chairman & CEO)

Mark W. Albers

(Senior Vice President)

Michael J. Dolan

(Senior Vice President)

Andrew P. Swiger

(Senior Vice President)

Donald D. Humphreys

(Senior Vice President & Treasurer)[1]

Products Fuels

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Lubricants

Petrochemicals

Revenue US$ 383.221 billion (2010)

Operating income US$ 52.959 billion (2010)

Net income US$ 31.398 billion (2010)

Total assets US$ 302.510 billion (2010)

Total equity US$ 152.679 billion (2010)

Employees 83,600 (2010)

Website ExxonMobil.com

The Exxon Mobil Corporation, or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas. Its affiliated with Imperial Oil which operates in Canada.

ExxonMobil is one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world, having been ranked either #1 or #2 for the past 5 years. However they are currently 6th according to Forbes Global 2000. Exxon Mobil's reserves were 72 billion oil-equivalent barrels at the end of 2007 and, at then (2007) rates of production, are expected to last over 14 years. With 37 oil refineries in 21 countries constituting a combined daily refining capacity of 6.3 million barrels, Exxon Mobil is the largest refiner in the world, a title that was also associated with Standard Oil since its incorporation in 1870.

ExxonMobil is the largest of the six oil supermajors with daily production of 3.921 million BOE (barrels of oil equivalent). In 2008, this was approximately 3% of world production, which is less than several of the largest state-owned petroleum companies. When ranked by oil and gas reserves it is 14th in the world with less than 1% of the total.

Organization

The Exxon Mobil Corporation headquarters is located in Irving, Texas. ExxonMobil markets products around the world under the brands of Exxon, Mobil, and Esso. It also owns hundreds of smaller subsidiaries such as Imperial Oil Limited (69.6% ownership) in Canada, and SeaRiver Maritime, a petroleum shipping company.

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The upstream division dominates the company's cashflow, accounting for approximately 70% of revenue. The company employs over 82,000 people worldwide, as indicated in ExxonMobil's 2006 Corporate Citizen Report, with approximately 4,000 employees in its Fairfax downstream headquarters and 27,000 people in its Houston upstream headquarters.

Operating divisions

ExxonMobil is organized functionally into a number of global operating divisions. These divisions are grouped into three categories for reference purposes, though the company also has several ancillary divisions, such as Coal & Minerals, which are stand alone.

Chart of the major energy companies dubbed "Big Oil", sorted by latest published revenue

Upstream (oil exploration, extraction, shipping, and wholesale operations) based in Houston, Texas

Downstream (marketing, refining, and retail operations) based in Fairfax, Virginia Chemical division based in Houston, Texas

Operating divisions by category are as follows:

Upstream o ExxonMobil Exploration Companyo ExxonMobil Development Company

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o ExxonMobil Production Companyo ExxonMobil Gas and Power Marketing Companyo ExxonMobil Upstream Research Companyo ExxonMobil Upstream Ventures

Downstream o ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Companyo SeaRiver Maritimeo ExxonMobil Fuels Marketing Companyo ExxonMobil Lubricants & Specialties Companyo ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Companyo International Marine Transportation

Chemical o ExxonMobil Chemical Company

ExxonMobil Global Services Company o ExxonMobil Information Technologyo Global Real Estate and Facilitieso Global Procuremento Business Support Centers

Imperial Oil

XTO

History

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ExxonMobil Building, ExxonMobil offices in Downtown Houston

Exxon Mobil Corporation was formed in 1999 by the merger of two major oil companies, Exxon and Mobil. Both Exxon and Mobil were descendants of the John D. Rockefeller corporation, Standard Oil which was established in 1870. The reputation of Standard Oil in the public eye suffered badly after publication of Ida M. Tarbell's classic exposé The History of the Standard Oil Company in 1904, leading to a growing outcry for the government to take action against the company.

By 1911, with public outcry at a climax, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Standard Oil must be dissolved and split into 34 companies. Two of these companies were Jersey Standard ("Standard Oil Company of New Jersey"), which eventually became Exxon, and Socony ("Standard Oil Company of New York"), which eventually became Mobil.

In the same year, the nation's kerosene output was eclipsed for the first time by gasoline. The growing automotive market inspired the product trademark Mobiloil, registered by Socony in 1920.

Over the next few decades, both companies grew significantly. Jersey Standard, led by Walter C. Teagle, became the largest oil producer in the world. It acquired a 50 percent share in Humble Oil & Refining Co., a Texas oil producer. Socony purchased a 45 percent interest in Magnolia Petroleum Co., a major refiner, marketer and pipeline transporter. In 1931, Socony merged with Vacuum Oil Co., an industry pioneer dating back to 1866 and a growing Standard Oil spin-off in its own right.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Jersey Standard had oil production and refineries in Indonesia but no marketing network. Socony-Vacuum had Asian marketing outlets supplied remotely from California. In 1933, Jersey Standard and Socony-Vacuum merged their interests in the region into a 50-50 joint venture. Standard-Vacuum Oil Co., or "Stanvac," operated in 50 countries, from East Africa to New Zealand, before it was dissolved in 1962.

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Mobil Chemical Company was established in 1950. As of 1999, its principal products included basic olefins and aromatics, ethylene glycol and polyethylene. The company produced synthetic lubricant base stocks as well as lubricant additives, propylene packaging films and catalysts. Exxon Chemical Company (first named Enjay Chemicals) became a worldwide organization in 1965 and in 1999 was a major producer and marketer of olefins, aromatics, polyethylene and polypropylene along with speciality lines such as elastomers, plasticizers, solvents, process fluids, oxo alcohols and adhesive resins. The company was an industry leader in metallocene catalyst technology to make unique polymers with improved performance.

In 1955, Socony-Vacuum became Socony Mobil Oil Co. and in 1966 simply Mobil Oil Corp. A decade later, the newly incorporated Mobil Corporation absorbed Mobil Oil as a wholly owned subsidiary. Jersey Standard changed its name to Exxon Corporation in 1972 and established Exxon as a trademark throughout the United States. In other parts of the world, Exxon and its affiliated companies continued to use its Esso trademark.

On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska and spilled more than 11 million gallons (42,000 m³) of crude oil. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was the second largest in U.S. history, and in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez incident, the U.S. Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. An initial award of $5 billion USD punitive was reduced to $507.5 million by the US Supreme Court in June 2008, and distributions of this award have commenced.

In 1998, Exxon and Mobil signed a US$73.7 billion definitive agreement to merge and form a new company called Exxon Mobil Corporation, the largest company on the planet. After shareholder and regulatory approvals, the merger was completed on November 30, 1999. The merger of Exxon and Mobil was unique in American history because it reunited the two largest companies of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil trust, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey/Exxon and Standard Oil Company of New York/Mobil, which had been forcibly separated by government order nearly a century earlier. This reunion resulted in the largest merger in US corporate history.

In 2000, ExxonMobil sold a refinery in Benicia, California and 340 Exxon-branded stations to Valero Energy Corporation, as part of an FTC-mandated divestiture of California assets. ExxonMobil continues to supply petroleum products to over 700 Mobil-branded retail outlets in California.

In 2005, ExxonMobil's stock price surged in parallel with rising oil prices, surpassing General Electric as the largest corporation in the world in terms of market capitalization. At the end of 2005, it reported record profits of US $36 billion in annual income, up 42% from the previous year (the overall annual income was an all-time record for annual income by any business, and included $10 billion in the third quarter alone, also an all-time record income for a single quarter by any business). The company and the American Petroleum Institute (the oil and chemical industry's lobbying organization) put these profits in context by comparing oil industry profits to those of other large industries such as pharmaceuticals and banking.[13][14]

On June 12, 2008, ExxonMobil announced that it was exiting the retail fuel business, citing the increasing difficulty to run gas stations under rising crude oil costs. The multi-year process will gradually phase the corporation out of the direct market, and will affect 820 company-owned stations and approximately 1,400 other stations operated by dealers distributing across the United

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States. The sale has not resulted in the disappearance of Exxon and Mobil branded stations; the new owners will continue to sell ExxonMobil gasoline and license the appropriate names from ExxonMobil, who will in turn be compensated for use of the brands.

In 2010, ExxonMobil bought XTO Energy, the company focused on development and production of unconventional resources.

Corporate affairs

The current Chairman of the Board and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corporation is Rex Tillerson. Tillerson assumed the top position on January 1, 2006, on the retirement of long-time chairman and CEO, Lee Raymond, who received a retirement and severance package of approximately $400 million USD, of which some were critical.

Board of directors

As of February 5, 2009, the current ExxonMobil board members are:[17]

Michael Boskin, professor of economics Stanford University, director of Oracle Corporation, Shinsei Bank, and Vodafone Group

Larry R. Faulkner, President, Houston Endowment; President Emeritus, the University of Texas at Austin

William W. George, professor of management practice, Harvard Business School James R. Houghton, Chairman of the Board, Corning Incorporated Reatha Clark King, former chairman, Board of Trustees, General Mills Foundation Philip E. Lippincott, retired Chairman of the Board, Scott Paper Company and Campbell

Soup Company Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman and CEO, Carlson Companies Samuel J. Palmisano, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO, IBM Corporation Joaquin Pelayo, Chairman of the Board and President, McGraw Hill. Steven S Reinemund, retired Executive Chairman of the Board, PepsiCo Walter V. Shipley, retired Chairman of the Board, Chase Manhattan Corporation Rex Tillerson, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Exxon Mobil

Corporation Edward E. Whitacre, retired Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, AT&T

Joint ventures and other strategic alliances

Aera Energy LLC is an E&P joint venture with Shell Oil, operating in California.

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Infineum is a joint venture between ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch/Shell for manufacturing and marketing lubricant and fuel additives.

Production

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3 percent of the world's oil and about 2 percent of the world's energy.

ExxonMobil, like other oil companies, is struggling to find new sources of oil. According to Wall Street Journal, for every 100 barrels of oil it has pumped, it has replaced only 95. This stands in contrast to natural gas, where, for every 100 cubic feet of gas extracted, Exxon has found or bought an additional 158.

Revenue and profits

In 2005, ExxonMobil surpassed Wal-Mart as the world's largest publicly held corporation when measured by revenue, although Wal-Mart remained the largest by number of employees.[20] ExxonMobil's $340 billion revenues in 2005 were a 25.5 percent increase over their 2004 revenues.

In 2006, Wal-Mart recaptured the lead with revenues of $348.7 billion against ExxonMobil's $335.1. ExxonMobil continued to lead the world in both profits ($39.5 billion in 2006) and market value ($460.43 billion).

In 2007, ExxonMobil had a record net income of $40.61 billion on $404.552 of revenue, an increase largely due to escalating oil prices as their actual oil equivalent production decreased by 1%, in part due to expropriation of their Venezuelan assets by the Chavez government.

As of July 1, 2010, ExxonMobil occupied 8 out of 10 slots for Largest Corporate Quarterly Earnings of All Time. Furthermore, it occupies 5 out of 10 slots on Largest Corporate Annual Earnings.

Financial data

Financial Data USD millionsYear-end 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Total revenue 358 955 365 467 390 328 459 579 301 586 383 221Net income 36 130 39 500 40 610 45 220 19 280 30 460Total assets 208 335 219 015 242 082 228 052 233 323Total debt 7 991 8 347 9 566 9 425 9 605

Environmental record

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ExxonMobil has been a contributor to environmental causes (the company donated $6.6 million to environmental and social groups in 2007). Its environmental record has been a target of critics from outside organizations such as the environmental lobby group Greenpeace as well as some institutional investors who disagree with its stance on global warming. The Political Economy Research Institute ranks ExxonMobil sixth among corporations emitting airborne pollutants in the United States. The ranking is based on the quantity (15.5 million pounds in 2005) and toxicity of the emissions. In 2005, ExxonMobil had committed less than 1% of their profits towards researching alternative energy, less than other leading oil companies.

Exxon Valdez oil spill

The March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill resulted in the discharge of approximately 11 million gallons of oil (240,000 barrels) into Prince William Sound, oiling 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of the remote Alaskan coastline. The State of Alaska's Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council stated that the spill "is widely considered the number one spill worldwide in terms of damage to the environment", but many larger spills have occurred.

Exxon was widely criticized for its slow response to cleaning up the disaster. John Devens, the Mayor of Valdez, has said his community felt betrayed by Exxon's inadequate response to the crisis. Exxon later removed the name "Exxon" from its tanker shipping subsidiary, which it renamed "SeaRiver Maritime." The renamed subsidiary, though wholly Exxon-controlled, has a separate corporate charter and board of directors, and the former Exxon Valdez is now the SeaRiver Mediterranean. The renamed tanker is legally owned by a small, stand-alone company, which would have minimal ability to pay out on claims in the event of a further accident.

After a trial, a jury ordered Exxon to pay $5 billion in punitive damages, though an appeals court reduced that amount by half. Exxon appealed further, and on June 25, 2008, the United States Supreme Court lowered the amount to $500 million.

In 2009, Exxon still uses more single-hull tankers than the rest of the largest ten oil companies combined, including the Valdez's sister ship, the SeaRiver Long Beach.

Exxon's Brooklyn oil spill

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced on July 17, 2007 that he had filed suit against the Exxon Mobil Corporation and ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Company to force cleanup of the oil spill at Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and to restore Newtown Creek.

A study of the spill released by the US Environmental Protection Agency in September 2007 reported that the spill consists of approximately 17 to 30 million gallons of petroleum products from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century. The largest portion of these operations were by ExxonMobil or its predecessors. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez oil spill was approximately 11 million gallons. The study reported that in the early 20th century Standard Oil of New York operated a major refinery in the area where the spill is located. The refinery produced fuel oils, gasoline, kerosene and solvents. Naptha and gas oil, secondary products, were also stored in the refinery area. Standard Oil of New York later became Mobil, a predecessor to Exxon/Mobil.

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Sakhalin-I in the Russian Far East

Scientists and environmental groups voice concern that the Sakhalin-I oil and gas project in the Russian Far East, operated by an ExxonMobil subsidiary, Exxon Neftegas Limited (ENL), threatens the critically endangered western gray whale population. In February, 2009, independent scientists, convened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature issued an urgent call for a "...moratorium on all industrial activities, both maritime and terrestrial, that have the potential to disturb gray whales in summer and autumn on and near their main feeding areas" following a sharp decline in observed whales in the main feeding area in 2008, adjacent to ENL's project area.The scientists also criticized ENL’s unwillingness to cooperate with the scientific panel process, which “certainly impedes the cause of western gray whale conservation.”

Funding of global warming skeptics

ExxonMobil has been accused of paying to fuel skepticism of anthropogenic global warming.

ExxonMobil has drawn criticism from the environmental lobby for funding organizations critical of the Kyoto Protocol and skeptical of the scientific opinion that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. According to Mother Jones Magazine, the company was a member of one of the first such skeptic groups, the Global Climate Coalition, founded in 1989. According to The Guardian, ExxonMobil has funded, among other groups skeptical of global warming, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, George C. Marshall Institute, Heartland Institute, Congress on Racial Equality, TechCentralStation.com, and International Policy Network. ExxonMobil's support for these organizations has drawn criticism from the Royal Society, the academy of sciences of the United Kingdom. The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report in 2007 accusing ExxonMobil of spending $16 million, between 1998 and 2005, towards 43 advocacy organizations which dispute the impact of global warming. The report argued that ExxonMobil used disinformation tactics similar to those used by the tobacco industry in its denials of the link between lung cancer and smoking, saying that the company used "many of the same organizations and personnel to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue." These charges are consistent with a purported 1998 internal ExxonMobil strategy memo, posted by the environmental group Environmental Defense, stating

Victory will be achieved when

Average citizens [and the media] 'understand' (recognize) uncertainties in climate science; recognition of uncertainties becomes part of the 'conventional wisdom' …

Industry senior leadership understands uncertainties in climate science, making them stronger ambassadors to those who shape climate policy[citation needed]

Those promoting the Kyoto treaty on the basis of extant science appear out of touch with reality.

ExxonMobil has been reported as having plans to invest up to US$100m over a ten year period in Stanford University's Global Climate and Energy Project.

In August 2006, the Wall Street Journal revealed that a YouTube video lampooning Al Gore, titled Al Gore's Penguin Army, appeared to be astroturfing by DCI Group, a Washington PR firm with ties to ExxonMobil.

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In January 2007, the company appeared to change its position, when vice president for public affairs Kenneth Cohen said "we know enough now—or, society knows enough now—that the risk is serious and action should be taken." Cohen stated that, as of 2006, ExxonMobil had ceased funding of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and "'five or six' similar groups".While the company did not publicly state which the other similar groups were, a May 2007 report by Greenpeace does list the five groups it stopped funding as well as a list of 41 other climate skeptic groups which are still receiving ExxonMobil funds.

On February 13, 2007, ExxonMobil CEO Rex W. Tillerson acknowledged that the planet was warming while carbon dioxide levels were increasing, but in the same speech gave an unqualified defense of the oil industry and predicted that hydrocarbons would dominate the world’s transportation as energy demand grows by an expected 40 percent by 2030. Tillerson stated that there is no significant alternative to oil in coming decades, and that ExxonMobil would continue to make petroleum and natural gas its primary products, saying: "I'm no expert on biofuels. I don't know much about farming and I don't know much about moonshine. ... There is really nothing ExxonMobil can bring to that whole biofuels issue. We don't see a direct role for ourselves with today's technology." However, recently Exxonmobil has announced that it will plan on spending up to 600 million dollars within the next 10 years to fund biofuels that come from algae. On July 14, 2010 Exxonmobil announced that, a year after teaming with Synthetic Genomics, Inc., they had opened a greenhouse to research algae as a possible biofuel.

A survey carried out by the UK's Royal Society found that in 2005 ExxonMobil distributed $2.9m to 39 groups that the society said "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence".

On July 1, 2009, The Guardian newspaper revealed that ExxonMobil has continued to fund organizations including the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) along with the Heritage Foundation, despite a public pledge to cut support of lobby groups who deny climate change.[64]

Criticism

Environment

The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, was a watershed moment for environmental critics of the oil industry.

Foreign business practices

Investigative reporting by Forbes Magazine raised questions about ExxonMobil's dealings with the leaders of oil-rich nations. ExxonMobil controls concessions covering 11 million acres (44,500 km²) off the coast of Angola that hold an estimated 7.5 billion barrels (1.2 km³) of crude.

In 2003, the Office of Foreign Assets Control reported that ExxonMobil engaged in illegal trade with Sudan and it, along with dozens of other companies, settled with the United States government for $50,000.

In March 2003, James Giffen of the Mercator Corporation was indicted, accused of bribing President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan with $78 million to help ExxonMobil win a 25 percent share of the Tengiz oilfield, the third largest in the world. On April 2, 2003, former-

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Mobil executive J. Bryan Williams was indicted on tax charges relating to this same transaction. The case is the largest under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This series of events is depicted in the film Syriana.

In a U.S. Department of Justice release dated September 18, 2003, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that J. Bryan Williams, a former senior executive of Mobil Oil Corporation, had been sentenced to three years and ten months in prison on charges of evading income taxes on more than $7 million in unreported income, "including a $2 million kickback he received in connection with Mobil's oil business in Kazakhstan." According to documents filed with the court, Williams' unreported income included millions of dollars in kickbacks from governments, persons, and other entities with whom Williams conducted business while employed by Mobil. In addition to his sentence, Williams must pay a fine of $25,000 and more than $3.5 million in restitution to the IRS, in addition to penalties and interest.

Human rights

ExxonMobil is the target of human rights activists for actions taken by the corporation in the Indonesian territory of Aceh. In June 2001 a lawsuit against ExxonMobil was filed in the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia under the Alien Tort Claims Act. The suit alleges that the ExxonMobil knowingly assisted human rights violations, including torture, murder and rape, by employing and providing material support to Indonesian military forces, who committed the alleged offenses during civil unrest in Aceh. Human rights complaints involving Exxon's (Exxon and Mobil had not yet merged) relationship with the Indonesian military first arose in 1992; the company denies these accusations and filed a motion to dismiss the suit, which was denied in 2008 by a federal judge, but then dismissed in August 2009 by a different federal judge. The dismissal is currently under appeal.

Headquarters

ExxonMobil's headquarters are located in Irving, Texas. As of January 2010, the company is conducting an internal study regarding possible consolidation of facilities to the northern Houston suburb of Spring, at the intersection of Interstate 45 and the Hardy Toll Road. Architectural documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle outline an elaborate corporate campus, including twenty office buildings totaling three million square-feet, a wellness center, laboratory, and multiple parking garages. Alan Jeffers, a spokesperson for the company, did not say whether the consolidation study includes the Irving headquarters, but definitely includes the Fairfax headquarters. Chris Wallace, the chief executive of the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce, said that he believed that it does include the headquarters.[76] In October 2010 the company stated that it would not move its headquarters to Greater Houston.[77]

Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell plc

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Type

Public limited company

(LSE: RDSA

LSE: RDSB

Euronext: RDSA

Euronext: RDSB

NYSE: RDS.A

NYSE: RDS.B)

Industry Oil and gas

Founded 1907

Headquarters

The Hague, Netherlands

(Headquarters)

Shell Centre,

London, United Kingdom

(Registered office)

Area served Worldwide

Key peopleJorma Ollila (Chairman)

Peter Voser (CEO)

ProductsPetroleum, natural gas, and other

petrochemicals

Revenue US$ 368.056 billion (2010)

Operating

incomeUS$ 35.344 billion (2010)

Profit US$ 20.474 billion (2010)

Total assets US$ 322.560 billion (2010)

Total equity US$ 148.013 billion (2010)

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Employees 101,000

Subsidiaries

List

Shell Australia

Shell Canada

Shell Chemicals

Shell Gas & Power

Shell Nigeria

Shell Pakistan

Shell Oil Company

Website Shell.com

Royal Dutch Shell plc (LSE: RDSA, LSE: RDSB), commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office at the Shell Centre in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest energy company and the second-largest company in the world measured by revenues and is one of the six oil and gas "supermajors".It is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It also has major renewable energy activities, including in biofuels, hydrogen, solar and wind power.

It has operations in over 90 countries, produces around 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and has 44,000 service stations worldwide. Shell Oil Company, its subsidiary in the United States, is one of its largest businesses.

Its primary listing is on the London Stock Exchange and it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange.

History

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Royal Dutch Petroleum dock in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia)

Headquarters in The Hague

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20th century

The Royal Dutch Shell Group was created in February 1907 when the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (legal name in Dutch, N.V. Koninklijke Nederlandsche Petroleum Maatschappij) and the "Shell" Transport and Trading Company Ltd of the United Kingdom merged their operations – a move largely driven by the need to compete globally with the then dominant American petroleum company, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. The terms of the merger gave 60% ownership of the new Group to the Dutch arm and 40% to the British.

Royal Dutch Petroleum Company was a Dutch company founded in 1890 by Jean Baptiste August Kessler, along with Henri Deterding, when a Royal charter was granted by King William III of the Netherlands to a small oil exploration and production company known as "Royal Dutch Company for the Working of Petroleum Wells in the Dutch Indies".

The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company (the quotation marks were part of the legal name) was a British company, founded in 1897 by Marcus Samuel and his brother Samuel Samuel. Their father had owned a company, importing and selling sea-shells, after which the company "Shell" took its name. In 1925, he became 1st Viscount Bearsted. Lord Bearsted was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law (LLD) from the University of Sheffield during his lifetime. Initially the Company commissioned eight oil tankers for the purposes of transporting oil. In 1919, Shell took control of the Mexican Eagle Petroleum Company and in 1921 formed Shell-Mex Limited which marketed products under the "Shell" and "Eagle" brands in the United Kingdom. In 1932, partly in response to the difficult economic conditions of the times, Shell-Mex merged its UK marketing operations with those of British Petroleum to create Shell-Mex and BP Ltd, a company that traded until the brands separated in 1975.

Around 1953, Shell was the first company to purchase and use an electronic computer in the Netherlands. The computer, a Ferranti Mark 1 Star, was assembled and used at the Shell laboratory in Amsterdam. In 1970 Shell acquired the mining company Billiton, which it subsequently sold in 1994 and now forms part of BHP Billiton.

21st century

In November 2004, following a period of turmoil caused by the revelation that Shell had been overstating its oil reserves, it was announced that the Shell Group would move to a single capital structure, creating a new parent company to be named Royal Dutch Shell plc, with its primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, a secondary listing on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, its headquarters and tax residency in The Hague, Netherlands and its registered office in London. The unification was completed on 20 July 2005. Shares were issued at a 60/40 advantage for the shareholders of Royal Dutch in line with the original ownership of the Shell Group. In November 2007 Shell acquired a majority stake in some gas fields owned by Regal Petroleum in Ukraine. In December 2009 a consortium led by Shell was awarded a production contract for the the Majnoon field in the south of Iraq, which contains an estimated 12.6 billion barrels of oil.

In February 2010 Shell and Cosan formed a 50:50 joint-venture comprising all of Cosan's Brazilian ethanol, energy generation, fuel distribution and sugar activities, and all of Shell's Brazilian retail fuel and aviation distribution businesses. In March 2010, Shell announced the sale of some of its assets, including its liquid petroleum gas (LPG) business, to meet the cost of a planned $28bn capital spending programme. Shell invited buyers to submit indicative bids, due

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by 22 March, with a plan to raise $2–3bn from the sale. In June 2010, Royal Dutch Shell agreed to acquire all of the business of East Resources for a cash consideration of $4.7 billion. The transaction included East Resources' tight gas fields.

Corporate affairs

Management

On 4 August 2005, the board of directors announced the appointment of Jorma Ollila, chairman and CEO of Nokia at the time, to succeed Aad Jacobs as the company’s non-executive chairman on 1 June 2006. Ollila is the first Shell chairman to be neither Dutch nor British. Other non-executive directors include Maarten van den Bergh, Wim Kok, Nina Henderson, Lord Kerr, Adelbert van Roxe, and Christine Morin-Postel.

As of 1 July 2009, Peter Voser was CEO of Shell. Peter, who is Swiss, is the first non-Dutch, non-British CEO of the company.

Name and brand

A Shell-sponsored Ferrari F60 Formula One motor racing car

The name Shell is linked to the Shell Transport and Trading Company. In 1833, the founder's father, also Marcus Samuel, founded an import business to sell seashells to London collectors. When collecting seashell specimens in the Caspian Sea area in 1892, the younger Samuel realized there was potential in exporting lamp oil from the region and commissioned the world's first purpose-built oil tanker, the Murex (Latin for a type of snail shell), to enter this market; by 1907 the company had a fleet. Although for several decades the company had a refinery at Shell Haven on the Thames, there is no evidence of this having provided the name.

The Shell brand is one of the most familiar commercial symbols in the world. Known as the "pecten" after the sea shell Pecten maximus (the giant scallop), on which its design is based, the current version of the brand was designed by Raymond Loewy and introduced in 1971. The 58 | P a g e

yellow and red colours used are thought to relate to the colours of the flag of Spain as Shell built early service stations in the state of California which had strong connections with Spain.

The slash was removed from the name "Royal Dutch/Shell" in 2004, concurrent with moves to merge the two legally separate companies (Royal Dutch and Shell) to the single legal entity which exists today.

Operations

The upstream provides two thirds of Shell's revenues

Shell has five core businesses: exploration and production (the "upstream"), gas and power, refining and marketing (the "downstream"), chemicals, and trading and shipping. Shell has operations in over 140 countries.

Oil and gas related activities

Shell's primary business is the management of a vertically integrated oil company. The development of technical and commercial expertise in all stages of this vertical integration, from the initial search for oil (exploration) through its harvesting (production), transportation, refining and finally trading and marketing established the core competencies on which the company was founded. Similar competencies were required for natural gas, which has become one of the most important businesses in which Shell is involved, and which contributes a significant proportion of the company's profits. While the vertically integrated business model provided significant economies of scale and barriers to entry, each business now seeks to be a self-supporting unit without subsidies from other parts of the company.

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Traditionally, Shell was a heavily decentralised business worldwide (especially in the downstream) with companies in over 100 countries, each of which operated with a high degree of independence. The upstream tended to be far more centralised with much of the technical and financial direction coming from the central offices in The Hague. Nevertheless. there were very large "exploration and production" companies in a small number of major oil and gas production centres such as the United Kingdom (Shell Expro, a Joint Venture with Exxon), Nigeria, Brunei, and Oman.

Downstream operations, which now also includes the chemicals business, generates a third of Shell's profits worldwide and is known its global network of more than 40,000 petrol stations and its 47 oil refineries. The downstream business, which in some countries also included oil refining, generally included a retail petrol station network, lubricants manufacture and marketing, industrial fuel and lubricants sales and a host of other product/market sectors such as LPG and bitumen. The practice in Shell was that these businesses were essentially local and that they were best managed by local "operating companies" – often with middle and senior management reinforced by expatriates. In the 1990s, this paradigm began to change, and the independence of operating companies around the world was gradually reduced. Today, virtually all of Shell’s operations in various businesses are much more directly managed from London and The Hague. The autonomy of “operating companies” has been largely removed, as more "global businesses" have been created.

Africa

Shell began drilling for oil in Africa during the 1950s. Shell began oil production in Nigeria in 1958. Shell operates in the upstream oil sector in Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon where is the giant Rabi-Kounga oil field, Ghana, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia; and in the downstream sector in 16 other countries.

In Nigeria, Shell told US diplomats that it had placed staff in all the main ministries of the government.

In April 2010, Shell announced its intention to divest from downstream business of all African countries except South Africa to Vitol and "Helios". In several countries such as Tunisia, protests and strikes broke out. Shell denied rumors of the sellout. Shell continues however upstream activities/extracting crude oil in the oil-rich Niger Delta as well as downstream/commercial activities in South Africa.

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Shell petrol station in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.

Australia

In Australia, retailer Coles Group (now part of Wesfarmers) purchased the rights to the retail business from the existing Shell Australia multi-site franchisees in 2003 for an amount less than A$100 million. The purchase was made in response to a popular discount fuel offer by rival Woolworths Limited launched some years earlier.

Coles Express' only affiliation with Shell is that Shell is the exclusive supplier of fuel and lubricant products, leases the service station property to Coles, and maintains the presence of the "pecten" and other Shell branding on the price board and other signage. Coles Express sets fuel and shop prices and runs the business, provides convenience and grocery merchandise through its supply chain and distribution network, and directly employs the service station staff.

Ireland

Shell first started trading in Ireland in 1902. Shell E&P Ireland (SEPIL) (previously Enterprise Energy Ireland) is an Irish exploration and production subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. Its headquarters are on Leeson Street in Dublin. It was acquired in May 2002. Its main project is the Corrib gas project, a large gas field off the northwest coast, for which Shell has encountered controversy and protests in relation to the onshore pipeline and licence terms.

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In 2005 Shell disposed of its entire retail and commercial fuels business in Ireland to Topaz Energy Group. This included depots, company-owned petrol stations and supply agreements stations throughout the island of Ireland. The retail outlets were re-branded to Topaz in 2008/9.

Service station near Lost Hills, California

North America

Through most of Shell's history, its business in the United States, Shell Oil Company was substantially independent with its stock ("Shell Oil") being traded on the NYSE and with little direct involvement from the group’s central offices in the running of the American business. Such practice also changed in the 1990s when Shell first bought out the shares in Shell Oil that it did not own and then took a more hands-on approach. In Canada, also previously very independent, Shell has completed its purchase of the shares in Shell Canada that it did not own, to apply the new global business model.

The Philippines

On January 2010, The bureau of customs is claiming 7.34 billion pesos worth of unpaid excise taxes against Pilipinas Shell for importing Catalytic cracked gasoline (CCG) and light catalytic cracked gasoline (LCCG) stating that those imports are bound for tariff charges.

Pilipinas Shell denied the claim stating that those imports are raw materials for making their products. The company later emphasized that they are considering to close their local oil refinery if the case continues. Pilipinas Shell informed the public that they will exhaust all necessary steps to meet the demand for fuel.

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Scandinavia

On 27 August 2007, Royal Dutch Shell and Reitan Group, the owner of the 7-Eleven brand in Scandinavia, announced an agreement to re-brand some 269 service stations across Norway, Sweden Finland and Denmark, subject to obtaining regulatory approvals under the different competition laws in each country. On April 2010 Shell announced that the corporation is in process of trying to find a potential buyer for all of its operations in Finland and is doing similar market research concerning Swedish operations.

Other activities

Over the years Shell has occasionally sought to diversify away from its core oil, gas and chemicals businesses. These diversifications have included nuclear power (a short-lived and costly joint venture with Gulf Oil in the USA); coal (Shell Coal was for a time a significant player in mining and marketing); metals (Shell acquired the Dutch metals-mining company Billiton in 1970) and electricity generation (a joint venture with Bechtel called Intergen). None of these ventures were seen as successful and all have now been divested.

In the early 2000s Shell moved into alternative energy and there is now an embryonic "Renewables" business that has made investments in solar power, wind power, hydrogen, and forestry. The forestry business went the way of nuclear, coal, metals and electricity generation, and was disposed of in 2003. In 2006 Shell sold its entire solar businessand in 2008, the company withdrew from the London Array which is expected to become the world's largest offshore wind farm.

Shell also is involved in large-scale hydrogen projects. HydrogenForecast.com describes Shell's approach thus far as consisting of "baby steps", but with an underlying message of "extreme optimism".

In September 2010, Shell agreed to a $12 billion joint venture with Brazilian sugarcane producer Cosan to develop sugarcane-based ethanol and power.

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Former Shell Research and Technology Centre, Amsterdam

Shell's compliance to corporate social responsibility also includes its UK and international Shell LiveWIRE programmes. This initiative has over 26 years experience of encouraging young people to start and develop their own businesses in the UK and 26 other countries in the world.

Shell has been criticised for its businesses in Africa, notably in relation to protests of the Ogoni in 1995.

In the 1990s, protesters criticized the company's environmental record, particularly the possible pollution caused by the proposed disposal of the Brent Spar platform into the North Sea. Despite support from the UK government, Shell reversed the decision under public pressure but maintained that sinking the platform would have been environmentally better. Shell subsequently published an unequivocal commitment to sustainable development, supported by executive speeches reinforcing this commitment.

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2004 overstatement of oil reserves

In 2004 Shell overstated its oil reserves, resulting in loss of confidence in the group, a £17 million fine by the Financial Services Authority and the departure of the chairman Philip Watts. A lawsuit resulted in the payment of $450 million to non-American shareholders in 2007.

Canadian oil sands

Shell is one of numerous firms who are extracting oil from Canadian oil sands.

Corporate communications

Shell Centre building in London, UK

Shell's advertising regarding its renewable energy business has been described as a greenwash by some environmental lobbies, though its renewable energy activities have been praised by other commentators.

In August 2008, the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that Shell had misled the public in an advertisement when it claimed that a $10 billion oil sands project in Alberta, Canada was a "sustainable energy source".

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Environmental pollution

The presence of companies like Shell in Niger-Delta has led to extreme environmental issues in the Niger Delta. Many Pipelines in the Niger-Delta owned by Shell are old and corroded. This has resulted in many oil spill in this area that have degraded the environment including killing of vegetation and fish. Shell has acknowledged its responsibility for keeping the pipelines new but has also denied responsibility for environmental causes. This has led to mass protests from the Niger-Delta inhabitants and Amnesty International against Shell. It has also led to action plans to boycott Shell by environmental groups, and human rights groups.

In Magdelena, Argentina: Shell was responsible for the largest oil spill that has ever occurred in freshwater in the world. On 15 January 1999, a Shell tank ship in Magdalena, Argentina collided with another tanker, emptying its contents into the lake, polluting the environment, drinkable water, plants and animals.

Health and safety

A number of incidents over the years led to criticism of Shell's health and safety record, including repeated warnings by the UK Health and Safety Executive about the poor state of the company's North Sea platforms.

Human rights

In the beginning of 1996, several human rights groups brought cases to hold Shell accountable for alleged human rights violations in Nigeria, including summary execution, crimes against humanity, torture, inhumane treatment and arbitrary arrest and detention. In particular, Shell stood accused of collaborating in the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni tribe of southern Nigeria, who were hanged in 1995 by Nigeria's then military rulers. The lawsuits were brought against Royal Dutch Shell and Brian Anderson, the head of its Nigerian operation. In 2009, Shell agreed to pay $15.5m in a legal settlement. Shell has not accepted any liability over the allegations against it.

In 2009, Shell was the subject of an Amnesty International report into the deterioration of human rights as a consequence of Shell's activities in the Niger Delta. In particular, Amnesty criticised the continuation of gas flaring and Shell's slow response to oil spills.

In 2010, a leaked cable revealed that Shell claims to have inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government and know "everything that was being done in those ministries", according to Shells top executive in Nigeria. The same executive also boasted that the Nigerian government had forgotten about the extent of Shell's infiltration.

Sakhalin-II project

Problems have also occurred with the Sakhalin-II project in Russia and the controversial Corrib Gas Field development in Ireland. Shell's social investment initiative the Shell Foundation has also run into some controversy. In 2007 Friends of the Earth alleged that the damage caused by Shell's oil activities to local communities and the wider environment could be assessed at $20 billion. Accusations have also been made about the conduct of Shell in Nigeria.

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Tom Corbett campaign donations

From 2009-2010, Shell, acting under East Resources, donated more than $300,000 to now acting governor, Tom Corbett, which some believe was a payoff in exchange for no severance tax and the repeal of environmental policies created to protect the environment from natural gas drilling.

Whistleblowers

Shell has set up a global internet-based facility for whistleblowers to report alleged violations of the law or the Shell general business principles, a voluntary code of ethics pledging transparency, integrity and honesty in all of Shell's business dealings. The introduction at the global helpline website says "Reporting and addressing suspected violations of the law or the Shell General Business Principles (SGBP) is of critical importance in protecting our reputation and the value of the Shell brand." Whistleblowers are asked to provide identity details but anonymous reports are also accepted. The Global Helpline operated by Global Compliance, Inc. is available to "customers, suppliers, partners, advisers and employees of Shell".

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Total S.A.

Total S.A.

Type Société Anonyme

Traded as Euronext: FP, NYSE: TOT

Industry Petroleum industry

Founded 1924

Founder(s) Ernest Mercier

Headquarters Tour Total, Courbevoie, France

Area served Worldwide

Key peopleChristophe De Margerie (Chairman and CEO),

Patrick de la Chevardière (CFO)

Products

Oil and gas exploration and production,

natural gas and LNG trading and

transportation, oil refining, chemicals

Services Fuel stations

Revenue €159.27 billion (2010)

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Operating

income€10.62 billion (2010)

Profit €10.57 billion (2010)

Total assets €143.72 billion (end 2010)

Total equity €61.27 billion (end 2010)

Employees 92,855 (end 2010)

Website total.com

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world.

Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international crude oil and product trading. Total is also a large-scale chemicals manufacturer. The company has its head office in the Tour Total in the La Défense district in Courbevoie, France, near Paris.

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History

Total Plaza, the headquarters of the subsidiary Total Petrochemicals USA, in Downtown Houston

The company was founded after World War I after the French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré rejected the idea of forming a partnership with Royal Dutch Shell in favour of creating an entirely French oil company. At Poincaré's behest, Col. Ernest Mercier enlisted the support of ninety banks and companies to found Total on 28 March 1924, as the Compagnie française des pétroles (CFP), literally the "French Company of Petroleums". Petroleum was seen as vital in the case of a new war with Germany. However, the company was from the start a private sector company (it was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange for the first time in 1929). CFP took up the 23.75% share of Deutsche Bank in the Turkish Petroleum Company (renamed the Iraq Petroleum Company), awarded to France as compensation for war damages caused by Germany during World War I by the San Remo conference.

In 1985 the company was renamed Total CFP. In 1991 the company name became simply Total. After Total's takeover of Petrofina in 1999, it became known as Total Fina. Afterwards it also acquired Elf Aquitaine. First named TotalFinaElf after the merger in 2000, it was later renamed back to Total in May 2003.

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Chart of the major energy companies dubbed "Big Oil" sorted by latest published revenue

As of 2010, Total had over 96,000 employees and operated in more than 130 countries As recently as 1992, the French government still held 5% of the firm's shares, down from a peak of over thirty percent. In the time period between 1990 and 1994, foreign ownership of the firm increased from 23 per cent to 44 per cent.

Senior management

Christophe de Margerie has been chief executive since 14 February 2007. His total annual compensation for this role is €2,746,335, consisting of a €1,250,000 salary and €1,496,335 bonus.

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Organisation

Business segments

Upstream

Exploration and Production Gas and Power

Downstream

Refining & marketing Trading & shipping

Chemicals

Total Petrochemicals Fertilizers Resins, adhesives and electroplating

o Cray Valleyo Sartomero Cook Composites & Polymerso Atotecho Bostik

Elastomer Processing

Environmental record

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A total filling station in Wetherby, West Yorkshire.

In 1998 the Total SA company was fined €375,000 for an oil spill that stretched 400 kilometers from La Rochelle to the western tip of Brittany. The company was only fined that amount because they were only partially liable because Total SA did not own the ship. The plaintiffs had sought more than $1.5 billion in damages. More than 100 groups and local governments joined in the suit. The Total company was fined just over $298,000,000.[contradictory] The majority of the money will go to the French government, several environmental groups, and various regional governments. The Total SA company was also fined $550,000 for the amount of marine pollution that came from it. After the oil spill they tried to restore their image and have opened a sea turtle conservation project in Masirah in recent years.

Prior to the verdict in which Total was found guilty one of the counterparts in the incident, Malta Maritime Authority (MMA), was not to be tried for having any hand in the incident. In 2005 Total submitted a report to the Paris courts which stated that Total had gotten a group of experts that stated the tanker had corrosion on it and that Total was responsible for it. The courts sought a second expert reviewing of this information which was turned down.

The AZF chemical plant which exploded in 2001 in Toulouse, France, belonged to the Grande Paroisse branch of Total.

On 16 January 2008, Total was required to compensate all of the victims of the pollution caused by the sinking of the ship Erika. They are required to compensate the victims in the amount of €192 million. This is in addition to the €200 million that Total spent to help clean up the spill. The company feels that the verdict is unfair because it wasn't their fault the ship sank. They will be appealing the verdict because it forced the users of the ship to also be the inspectors and not the people that made the ship.

On 13 August 2007, Total announced a lower fuel emission, lower emissions and cost-efficient petroleum product, named Evolution. Evolution is designed to let its user use less fuel and get further than other fuels. The product was developed exclusively for Total because of the demand for more energy efficient products. This fuel can be used with any engine that runs on unleaded.

Total have also recently announced that they are exploring the possibilities of entering the nuclear power sector. Although they already own one per cent of Areva, the largest nuclear business in the world Total does not currently have extensive involvement in nuclear power. However, in January 2008 Total announced that they were to sign an agreement with Suez and Areva to submit a nuclear power plant project to the authorities in the United Arab Emirates.

Controversies

Myanmar investments

Despite the European Union's sanctions against the military dictatorship Myanmar, Total is able to operate the Yadana natural gas pipeline from Burma to Thailand. Total is currently the subject of a lawsuit in French and Belgian courts for the condoning and use of the country's civilian slavery to construct the pipeline. The documentary 'Total Denial' shows the background of this project. The NGO Burma Campaign UK is currently campaigning against this project.

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Italian bribes

On 16 December 2008, the managing director of the Italian division of Total Lionel Levha, along with ten other executives, was arrested by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Potenza, Italy, for a corruption charge of €15 million to undertake the oilfield in Basilicata on contract. Also arrested was the local deputy of Partito Democratico Salvatore Margiotta and an Italian entrepreneur.

UN Oil-for-Food Programme for Iraq

In April 2010, Total was accused of bribing Iraqi officials during former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime to secure oil supplies. A United Nations report later revealed that Iraqi officials had received bribes from oil companies to secure contracts worth over $10bn (£6.5bn).

Investments in Iran

Total has been a significant investor in the Iranian energy sector since 1990. Total is suspected of concealing the source of its oil imports from Iran. On 28 June 2010 Total announced that it would cease shipments of oil products to Iran following adoption by the United States of economic sanctions against the country.

Western Sahara oil exploration

In October 2001, Total signed a contract for oil-reconnaissance in areas offshore Western Sahara (near Dakhla), with the "Moroccan Office National de Recherches et d’Exploitations Petrolières" (ONAREP). In January 2002, Hans Corell (the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs) stated in a letter to the President of the Security Council that whenever the contracts are only for exploration they're not illegal, but if further exploration or exploitation are against the interests and wishes of the people of Western Sahara, they would be in violation of the principles of international law. Finally, and after pressures from international corporate ethics-groups, Total decided not to renew their license off Western Sahara.

Head office

The company has its head office in the Tour Total in the La Défense district in Courbevoie, France, near Paris. The building was originally constructed between 1983 and 1985 for Elf Aquitaine; Total SA acquired the building after its merger with Elf in 2000.

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References

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