Company Research

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Overview

The global oil and gas industry is a unique and sophisticated industry. In looking at some of its interesting characteristics, state-owned companies dominate exploration and production, referred to as "upstream services," while publicly owned companies dominate the refining and marketing aspects of the industry, or "down stream services."¹

Estimating the size of the world oil and gas industry is a difficult task. For instance, the state-owned companies do not issue stock, therefore cannot be valued based on market capitalization.² In addition, variations in accounting standards and the lack of transparency with many state-owned firms, make it difficult to estimate the industry's actual revenues and earnings. Estimating the size of the oil and gas industry is much easier when evaluating the publicly owned firms.

Oil and gas company rankings can be found in a number of different sources, which include: Business Rankings Annual, Standard & Poor's Industry Survey, and Energy Intelligence Top 100: Ranking the World's Oil Companies.

Issue 5/6: Winter 2005/Spring 2006

The Oil & Gas Industry

Table of Contents

Introduction
History
Cartels & Organizations
Production
Refining
Transportation & Storage
Marketing & Distribution
Natural Gas Industry Trends
Alternative Energy Sources
Company Research
Statistical Sources
News & Analysis
Electronic Resources & Catalog Searches

•  1. Exxon Mobil Corporation - $264 billion
•  2. British Petroleum, plc. - $174.6 billion
•  3. Royal Dutch/Shell Group - $158.8 billion
•  4. TOTAL SA - $115.3 billion
•  5. ChevronTexaco Corp. - $90.5 billion
•  6. ENI SpA - $76.9 billion
•  7. OAO Gazprom - $50.6 billion
•  8. ConocoPhillips - $45.1 billion
•  9. Schlumberger Ltd. - $35.9 billion
• 10. Petroleo Brasileiro - $32.9 billion

In doing company research, one of the first sources to check for information is the company itself. Company web pages can be a wealth of information. In particular, the Investor Relations and Press Release/News sections. The Investor Relations section is a good source for all of the financial filings made to the government regulatory bodies. While these filings are usually located on the company web pages, this information can be obtained by accessing the filings through the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), specifically the SEC's EDGAR Database.

There are several filings to which one should pay particular attention.

The first is the 10K or annual filing. Along with all of the annual financial information, this filing also has sections that can provide information on the company operations and sometimes insight on the industry itself. Item 1 is the Business section, and it contains information on various business lines/segments as well as sometimes information on strategy, marketing, and competition. Item 7 is the Management Discussion & Analysis section and it contains specific notes to various things reported in the 10K. This section is often where more segment information as well as geographical segment information can be found.

The second filing is the 10Q which is a quarterly filing. It is not nearly as in-depth as the 10K and is primarily used to update the financial data.

Third is the Proxy statement which is usually published around the time as the 10K, and contains all of the executive and executive compensation issues.

The last is the Annual Report sent out to shareholders. Some company's annual reports and 10Ks contain roughly the same information but the annual report is presented in ways that people without technical expertise can understand.

There are also many other databases that contain company and industry data. Many of these databases require a subscription and can be quite expensive. Some of the many databases available include: Hoovers, Mergent, Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage, Gale's Business & Company Resource, and Dow Jones Factiva. Local public or university libraries are good places to access these and other resources. These and other resources included in this section, are intended to assist in researching this very complex, fascinating and critically important global industry.

Print Resources

International Petroleum Encyclopedia. Tulsa, OK: Pennwell Corporation, c2004. 332 p.
LC Call Number: Not available as of March 4, 2006
LC Catalog Record: 2005295063

Oil & Gas Financial Journal. Tulsa, OK: PennWell Corp. Quarterly/Monthly. 2004 - present.
LC Call number: HD9560.1 .O335
LC Catalog Record: 2005214477

Oil & Gas Journal. Tulsa, OK: Petroleum Pub. Co. Monthly. 1910? - present.
LC Call Number: TN860 .O4
LC Catalog Record: ca 12000708

Oil Market Intelligence. New York: Petroleum & Energy Intelligence Weekly, Inc. Monthly. April 1996 - present
LC Call Number: HD9560.1 .O43
LC Catalog Record: 96660637

Petroleum Economist. London: Petroleum Press Bureau. Monthly. January 1974 - present.
LC Call Number: HD9560.1 .P63
LC Catalog Record: 75640192

Ranking the World's Oil Companies. New York: Energy Intelligence Group. Annual. 1995 - present
LC Call Number: HD9560.1 .R36
LC Catalog Record: 96644715
Table of Contents - 2005 volume
Publisher's Description - 2005 volume

Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys. Quarterly/Weekly. January 1973 to present. New York: Standard & Poor's Corp.
LC Call Number: HC106.6 .S74
LC Catalog Record: 77183941

ExxonMobil Corporation. ExxonMobil Collection. 1790-2004; (with most materials dating between the 1880s-1990s.)
Available at the Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Note: NOT IN THE COLLECTIONS OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
Online guide to the collection: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00352/cah-00352.html#a0

Housed at the Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin, this collection includes: Foundation and governance documents, legal agreements, correspondence and memoranda, publications, financial reports, press releases, speeches, news clippings, histories, advertising and graphics material, posters, ledgers and record books, drawings and blueprints, photographs, moving images, sound recordings, and artifacts and memorabilia that ocument the activities and functions of four major corporate entities - Standard Oil Company, Mobil Corporation, Exxon Corporation and Exxon Mobil Corporation - and their predecessors and subsidiaries.

• Part 1: Collection overview and Standard Oil Company material
• Part 2: Mobil Corporation: Series I. Subject Files: Affiliates through Histories
• Part 3: Mobil Corporation: Series I. Subject Files: Lindbergh, Charles A. through Travel Guides
• Part 4: Mobil Corporation: Series II. Publications and Series III. Office of the Corporate Secretary Records
• Part 5: Mobil Corporation: Series IV. Photographs and Series V. Moving Images
• Part 6: Exxon Corporation: Series I. Subject Files
P
• art 7 : Exxon Corporation: Series II. Publications and Series III. History of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) Research Files
• Part 8: Exxon Corporation: Series IV. Photographs and Series V. Moving Images
• Part 9: Exxon Mobil Corporation: Series II. Publications

Internet Resources

Energy Intelligence
http://www.energyintel.com/

Public Company Research
http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/company/public.html

U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. (filings search)
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/srch-edgar

Yahoo! Finance Industry Center.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/ind_index.html

Major Oil and Gas Companies

British Petroleum.
http://www.bp.com/

Chevron Texaco.
http://www.chevron.com/

China National Petroleum Co.
http://www.cnpc.com.cn/ (Chinese)
http://www.cnpc.com.cn/english/ (English)

Conoco Phillips.
http://www.conocophillips.com/

Exxon Mobil.
http://www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/

ENI SpA.
http://www.eni.it/

Marathon Oil.
http://www.marathon.com/

OAO Gazprom.
http://www.gazprom.ru/ (Russian)
http://www.gazprom.ru/eng/ (English)

Pemex.
http://www.pemex.com/

PetroChina.
http://www.petrochina.com.cn/chinese/index.htm (Chinese)
http://www.petrochina.com.cn/english/index.htm  (English)

Petrobras.
http://www2.petrobras.com.br/ (Portuguese)
http://www2.petrobras.com.br/ingles/index.asp (English)

Royal Dutch/Shell.
http://www.shell.com/

Saudi Aramco.
http://www.saudiaramco.com/

Sinopec Corp.
http://english.sinopec.com/index.jsp

Total SA.
http://www.total.co.za/

Library of Congress Catalog Searches

Additional works on oil and gas industry company resources in the Library of Congress may be identified by searching the Online Catalog under appropriate Library of Congress subject headings. Choose the topics you wish to search from the following list to link directly to the Catalog and automatically execute a search for the subject selected. Please be aware that during periods of heavy use you may encounter delays in accessing the catalog. Please see the individual sections of this guide for catalog searches relating to those topics. For assistance in locating other subject headings which may relate to this subject, please consult a reference librarian.

• Search under the name of the company
        for example: British Petroleum
• Energy industries--Directories
• Gas industry--Directories
• Petroleum industry and trade--Case studies
• Petroleum industry and trade--Directories
• Petroleum industry and trade--History
• Petroleum industry and trade and (Co. or company) (Subject keyword search)

 1. Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys. Oil & Gas: Production and Marketing Industry Survey. New York: Standard & Poor's Corp., October 20, 2005. p.10.

 2. Ibid., p.10.