Home > Forecasts and Analysis > Energy Finance > Foreign Direct Investment Acquisitions and Divestitures, 2007
 Acquisitions and Divestitures by Foreign Direct Investors in U.S. Energy in 2007 Contacts | Report Home

Release Date: April 2010
Next Release Date: November 2011  

Download Full Report (PDF format)

Findings

  • Based on EIA’s latest analysis of information on acquisitions and divestitures by foreign direct investors in the U.S. energy industry, net FDI acquisitions (the value of acquisitions minus divestitures) jumped from negative in 2006 to the highest level since 1998, when British Petroleum purchased Amoco.

  • Gross FDI acquisitions in 2007 were almost five times higher than in 2006, and were exceeded only by 1998 and 2000, when a large single acquisition dominated each year. In contrast, eleven transactions exceeded $1 billion in 2007.

  • Divestitures in 2007 dropped to about one-sixth of the 2006 amount, reaching the lowest level of FDI divestitures since 1997. The only large divestiture by a foreign direct investor in U.S. energy in 2007 that could be identified was Royal Dutch Shell’s sale of its Los Angeles refinery and associated products terminal and retail sites in Southern California to Tesoro.

    • Background and Definitions

    Foreign direct investment (FDI) is the ownership or control of 10 percent or more of a U.S. company by a foreign investor.[1]  Acquisitions and divestitures by foreign direct investors are purchases and sales, made directly or indirectly, of U.S. businesses (or assets) where either the buyer or the seller, but not both, is a foreign direct investor. The information presented here is derived from company reports and press releases, industry publications, and company filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Because not all acquisitions and divestitures of businesses (or assets) nor the ownership of businesses (or assets) necessarily become public knowledge, and because the reporting of FDI mergers and acquisitions is incomplete, the set of transactions reported here may be incomplete. The Energy Information Administration does not directly collect any data regarding these types of transactions, nor does it make any attempt to independently value them.


    [1] For further information on foreign direct investment in U.S. energy, see Energy Information Administration, “Foreign Direct Investment in U.S. Energy 2006.” A good overall treatment of FDI in the United States can be found in Edward M. Graham and Paul R. Krugman, Foreign Direct Investment in the United States, 3rd ed., (Washington, DC: Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, 1995).