Devon Energy
Devon Energy Corporation is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the United States. It is organized in Delaware and headquartered in the 50-story Devon Energy Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Its operations are in the Barnett Shale, STACK Formation in Oklahoma, Delaware Basin, Eagle Ford Group shale, and the Rocky Mountains.
The company is ranked 297th on the Fortune 500.
As of December 31, 2019, the company had proved reserves of.
History
Devon was founded in 1971 by John Nichols and his son, J. Larry Nichols.In 1988, the company became a public company via an initial public offering.
In August 2000, the company was added to the S&P 500 Index.
In 2004, Devon was one of several companies in the petroleum industry for which shareholder resolutions were introduced that would have required the companies to monitor their effects on climate change.
In August 2008, co-founder John Nichols died.
In March 2010, the company sold assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan, and the Gulf of Mexico to BP for $7 billion.
In October 2012, the company completed construction of its current headquarters, the 50-story Devon Energy Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and closed its office in the Allen Center in Downtown Houston.
In April 2014, the company sold its conventional assets in Canada to Canadian Natural Resources for C$3.125 billion.
In June 2014, the company sold assets to Linn Energy for $2.3 billion.
In August 2015, Dave Hager was named president and chief executive officer of the company.
In February 2016, Devon announced plans to lay off 1,000 employees, including 700 in Oklahoma City, and cut its dividend as part of a cost-cutting effort due to low prices of its products.
In 2017, the company sold its Lavaca County assets in the Eagle Ford.
In June 2019, the company sold its assets in Canada to Canadian Natural Resources for CAD $3.8 billion.
In November 2019, the company almost capped a blowout at a natural gas well, which prompted authorities to seal off thousands of acres of land near the Eagle Ford Shale towns of Yorktown and Nordheim. Crews were able to install a capping stack on the well to reduce natural gas flowing from the well.
Acquisitions
| # | Year | Company | Price | Description of Assets | Ref. |
| 1 | Hondo Oil and Gas | $122 million | Oil and gas reserves and seven natural gas processing plants | ||
| 2 | Kerr-McGee | $250 million | North American onshore oil and gas properties, 370,000 net acres of undeveloped drilling rights | ||
| 3 | Northstar Energy | $750 million | Oil and gas properties in Canada | ||
| 4 | PennzEnergy | $2.2 billion | Oil and gas properties in the Gulf Of Mexico | ||
| 5 | Santa Fe Snyder | $2.35 billion | |||
| 6 | Anderson Exploration | $4.6 billion | Canadian properties | ||
| 7 | Mitchell Energy | $3.5 billion | Properties in the Barnett Shale of Texas | ||
| 8 | Ocean Energy | $5.3 billion | Deepwater sites in the Gulf of Mexico | ||
| 9 | Chief Oil and Gas | $2.2 billion | Barnett Shale leasehold | ||
| 10 | GeoSouthern Energy | $6.1 billion | Eagle Ford assets | ||
| 11 | Crosstex Energy | Merger of midstream assets to form EnLink Midstream, LLC | |||
| 12 | Felix Energy | $2.5 billion | Assets in the Powder River Basin & Anadarko Basin |
Political activity
Devon contributed over $1 million in each of the last 3 U.S. election cycles, almost entirely to organizations and individuals affiliated with the Republican Party. In 2016, the company contributed $750,000 to the Senate Leadership Fund, whose goal is to protect the Republican majority in the United States Senate. It also gave $500,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund, whose goal is to protect the Republican majority in the United States House of Representatives.Devon and its lobbyists have been noted to have close ties to government officials. In 2014, an investigation by The New York Times uncovered that a three-page letter signed by Scott Pruitt, then the Attorney General of Oklahoma, to the United States Environmental Protection Agency advocating for a relaxing of laws related to hydraulic fracturing was actually written by lobbyists for Devon Energy and not by Pruitt.
In 2015, a shareholder resolution was introduced that would have required the company to disclose its lobbying activity against regulations to prevent climate change. The resolution received votes of support by approximately 20% of shareholders.