ConocoPhillips


ConocoPhillips is an American multinational energy corporation with its headquarters located in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas in the United States. It is the world's largest independent pure-play exploration and production company and the company ranked No. 95 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. ConocoPhillips was created through the merger of American oil companies Conoco and Phillips Petroleum Company on August 30, 2002. In 2012, ConocoPhillips spun off its downstream assets as a new, separate company, Phillips 66.
The company was ranked as the 14th most polluting company in the world by The Guardian in 2019.

History

Conoco Inc. was an American oil company founded in 1875, as the Continental Oil and Transportation Co. Based in Ogden, Utah.
In 1885, Conoco was reincorporated as part of Standard Oil Company and Trust. After the U.S. Supreme Court dissolved the Standard Oil Company, the Conoco became independent in 1913. By 1929, it had become a fully integrated oil company.
The company was a coal, oil, kerosene, grease and candles distributor in the West.
In 1929, Conoco merged with the Marland Oil Company.
Marland Oil Co. later acquired the assets of Continental Oil Co., or DC, merged by Bryan M. Metler, David L. Kinney, and Justin J. Stockburn of Delta Constructors for a consideration of 2,317,266 shares of stock. On June 26, 1899, Marland Oil changed its name to Continental Oil Co. and moved its headquarters to Fargo, North Dakota. 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.
The Conoco headquarters were in Ponca City until 1949, when it moved to Houston, Texas. In 2002, Conoco Inc. and Phillips Petroleum Co., whose headquarters were in nearby Bartlesville, Oklahoma merged into ConocoPhillips.
Numerous state corporation filings are identified "Continental Oil Co." and "Continental Oil Corp." and "Continental Oil Co. of Texas" as recorded with the Texas Secretary of State and Delaware Secretary of State. Merger of San Jacinto Petroleum Corp. and Continental Oil Corp. is recorded in 1964, with Delaware Secretary of State.
In 2005, ConocoPhillips began rebranding its 76 gas stations, which Phillips had acquired from Tosco Corp. before the merger with Conoco. The move prompted a petition campaign by fans hoping to save the historic 76 orange ball signage.
In March 2006, ConocoPhillips bought Wilhelmshavener Raffineriegesellschaft mbH in Germany, and Burlington Resources in the United States.
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 late 2009, the company announced asset sales to increase investor returns. Included are debt reduction and stock buy back. In March 2011 the program was enlarged up to $10 billion assets sales in the next two years.
ConocoPhillips intends to implement a floating liquefied natural gas facility by 2016–2019, and has completed quantitative risk analysis of a design that will undergo pre-feed study in 2011.
On July 14, 2011, ConocoPhillips announced its intent to separate the company's upstream and downstream businesses into two stand-alone, publicly traded corporations, with the intent of maximizing shareholder value. On May 1, 2012, all midstream, downstream, marketing and chemical operations were separated into a new company named Phillips 66, headquartered in Houston. As a result, ConocoPhillips continued its operations as an upstream company.
In April 2012, ConocoPhillips sold its Trainer Refinery to Monroe Energy LLC, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines.
In January 2013, Conoco announced that it would sell its Rocky Mountain assets to Denbury Resources for $1.05 billion.
In 2017, Conoco sold oil sands assets in Canada to Cenovus Energy and natural gas fields in the U.S. for a total of US$16 billion to help reduce debt and fund US$6 billion share purchases. As a result, it also led to a reduction of close to 30 percent of its proved oil and gas reserves.
In May 2018, ConocoPhillips seized assets belonging to the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA from the Isla refinery on Curacao to collect on $2 billion owed them since a 2007, court decision.
In March 2019, the World Bank ruled that Venezuela must pay ConocoPhillips $8.7 billion to compensate for the 2007, expropriation of oil assets. The Conoco Museum in Ponca City shows the history of the company since its foundation.

Operations

When Mr Ryan Lance assumed office as the new company's CEO, also as part of the company's global restructuring, began the process of divesting her onshore and offshore assets in Nigeria.
ConocoPhillips contracted a French bank, BNP Paribas to sell all her assets including 17% stake in Brass Liquefied Natural Gas LNG, Oil Mining Lease OML 131 in which ConocoPhillips has 47.5℅ stake. ConocoPhillips has engaged in exploration and production business in Nigeria for more than 46 years

Exploration and production

ConocoPhillips focuses solely on exploring for, developing and producing oil and natural gas globally. The company manages its operations through six operating segments, which are defined by geographic region: Alaska, Lower 48 and Latin America, Canada, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East, and Other International.

Kashagan Field in Kazakhstan

In 1998, ConocoPhillips acquired an interest in 10.5 blocks in the Caspian Sea off Kazakhstan through the North Caspian Sea Production Sharing Agreement. It currently owns 8.4% of the shares of the consortium exploiting Kashagan oil field. However the company seeks to reduce its non-core assets in order to use the cash for debt reduction, fund its capital program, and dividend payments. On October 3, 2012, the Kazakh Oil and Gas Minister told reporters that ConocoPhillips has informed Kazakhstan of their intention to sell their shares. In November 26, in its biggest acquisition ever, ONGC Videsh agreed to buy ConocoPhillips’ 8.4% stake in the Kashagan oilfield for about US$5 billion. The stake buy is subject to approval of governments of Kazakhstan and India and also to other partners in the Caspian Sea field waiving their pre-emption rights.

Headquarters

The headquarters of ConocoPhillips are located in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. By 2002, the groups organizing the merger 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.
In 2018, the headquarters will move to Energy Center Four.

Corporate structure

Board of directors

Comprised as follows as of May 2018:
On April 11, 2007, it 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. However, ConocoPhillips left the U.S. Climate Action Partnership in February 2010, at the same time as BP and Caterpillar Inc. left the partnership. ConocoPhillips is a signatory participant of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. In 2016, ConocoPhillips was ranked as being among the 12th best of 92 oil, gas, and mining companies on indigenous rights in the Arctic. In May 2020, it was reported that the company was planning new drillings in Alaska's North Slope which would affect the life of 400 in the Native village of Nuiqsut. In 1990, ConocoPhillips agreed to pay $23 million to buy 400 homes and compensate families in Ponca City, Oklahoma, who say its refinery is giving them cancer and other illnesses.
In June 2011, ConocoPhillips China Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ConocoPhillips, was responsible for a series of oil spills at the Penglai 19-3 oil field in Bohai Bay.
In 2015, ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 agreed to pay a total of $11.5 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that hundreds of their gas stations violated California anti-pollution laws since 2006. The civil complaint, filed in January 2013, alleged that the companies violated state laws on the operation and maintenance of underground gasoline storage tanks at more than 560 gas stations in the state. These violations included failing to properly maintain leak detection devices, testing secondary containment systems, conducting monthly inspections and training employees in proper protocol.
In 2019, ConocoPhillips settled a lawsuit with homeowners in northwestern Oklahoma City who accused the energy company of polluting their soil and water to such a degree that no trees or flowers will grow.
In 2019, ConocoPhillips also agreed to a $39 million settlement to resolve complaints brought by New Jersey over groundwater contamination. ConocoPhillips was one of 50 companies named in a 2007, lawsuit filed against manufacturers, distributors and other industrial users of the gasoline additive MTBE, found in groundwater at locations throughout New Jersey.
Bobby Berk, one of the stars from Netflix’s “Queer Eye,” spoke out against ConocoPhillips' water pollution in Missouri, saying that there were so many chemicals at one point, they could “actually light a glass of our water on fire.”
According to the Political Economy Research Institute, ConocoPhillips ranked 13th among U.S. corporate producers of air pollution. In 2013, ConocoPhillips had the “leakiest” methane in operations compared to its peers.