ConocoPhillips

Lore & Background

In 2002, Conoco Inc. merged with Phillips Petroleum Company to form ConocoPhillips, with Houston selected as the headquarters site. Internationally, it operates in Norway, Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, and Qatar. In 2012, ConocoPhillips spun off its downstream assets into Phillips 66, becoming a pure upstream company.

Reader's Guide

ConocoPhillips is a significant player in the global oil and gas industry, with a history spanning over a century. Its formation through the merger of Conoco and Phillips Petroleum created a major integrated energy company, later refocused solely on exploration and production after the spin-off of Phillips 66. The company's operations in 15 countries and substantial reserves underscore its role in meeting global energy demand. The company's legal and financial entanglements, including a $8.7 billion World Bank ruling against Venezuela for expropriation and asset seizures from PDVSA, highlight its aggressive defense of investments. Its recent acquisitions in the Permian Basin and partnerships in Qatar's North Field expansion demonstrate continued strategic growth in natural gas and oil.

Did You Know?

• ConocoPhillips was formed in 2002 by the merger of Conoco Inc. and Phillips Petroleum Company.
• In January 2021, ConocoPhillips announced a significant discovery at the Slagugle well offshore Norway, with estimated recoverable resources between 75.5 million and 201 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Roots in the American West

ConocoPhillips traces its lineage back to 1875, when Isaac Blake established the Continental Oil and Transportation Company in Ogden, Utah. The young enterprise was absorbed into Standard Oil in 1885, only to regain its independence in 1913 after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the Standard Oil trust. By the late 1920s, the company had grown into a fully integrated oil operation, distributing coal, kerosene, grease, and even candles across the western United States. That same year, 1929, it merged with Marland Oil Company, an enterprise founded by exploration pioneer E. W. Marland. The union brought with it Marland's distinctive red bar-and-triangle emblem, which the combined firm displayed from 1930 until 1970, when the familiar red capsule logo took its place. The company's headquarters shifted over the decades—from Ponca City to Houston, Texas in 1949—setting the stage for the global energy giant that would eventually emerge.

The Merger That Redefined the Company

On August 30, 2002, Conoco Inc. and Phillips Petroleum Company joined forces in a deal that reshaped the American energy landscape. Phillips had been headquartered in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, just a short distance from Conoco's own offices, yet the merged entity chose Houston as its new home base—a decision that drew a public rebuke from Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, who called the relocation regrettable. The combination was strategic: pooling the two firms' expertise gave the new ConocoPhillips the capability to pursue megaprojects centered on remote natural gas supplies. A decade later, the company made another bold structural move. In July 2011, leadership announced plans to split the upstream and downstream operations into separate publicly traded entities. By May 2012, all midstream, downstream, marketing, and chemical businesses had been spun off into Phillips 66, headquartered in Houston. ConocoPhillips emerged from the transaction as a pure exploration-and-production firm, shedding assets like the Trainer Refinery, which was sold to a Delta Air Lines subsidiary.

A Truly Global Production Portfolio

ConocoPhillips operates across fifteen countries, and its 2019 production mix reveals a deliberately diversified footprint. The United States accounted for nearly half—49 percent—of total output, with significant contributions from Alaska, the Eagle Ford Group, the Permian Basin, the Bakken Formation, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Anadarko Basin. Alaska alone generated roughly one-third of the company's American production, spanning the Cook Inlet Area, the Alpine oil field off the Colville River, and the Kuparuk and Prudhoe Bay fields on the North Slope. Beyond North America, Australia contributed 12 percent, Norway 10 percent, Qatar 6 percent, Canada 5 percent, and smaller shares came from Indonesia, Malaysia, Libya, and China. As of the end of 2023, the company held proved reserves of 6,758 million barrels of oil equivalent, composed of 46 percent petroleum, 34 percent natural gas, 14 percent natural gas liquids, and 6 percent bitumen. On the corporate scale, ConocoPhillips ranked 75th on the Fortune 500 and 83rd among the world's largest public companies in the 2023 Forbes Global 2000.

Environmental Scrutiny and Sovereign Disputes

ConocoPhillips has faced significant scrutiny over its environmental footprint. A 2019 investigation by The Guardian placed the company at the fourteenth-highest level of carbon emissions among all corporations globally, and the firm was estimated to be responsible for 0.91 percent of all industrial greenhouse gas emissions worldwide between 1988 and 2015. The company's legal disputes with sovereign nations have also been notable. In February 2017, a tribunal ordered Ecuador to pay the company 380 million dollars for what was ruled an unlawful expropriation of its oil investments. A more protracted confrontation with Venezuela saw ConocoPhillips seize assets belonging to state oil company PDVSA at the Isla refinery on Curaçao in May 2018, acting to collect on a two-billion-dollar judgment that had been outstanding since a 2007 court decision. The World Bank subsequently issued a ruling in the company's favor in March 2019. These episodes underscore the high-stakes, geopolitically charged environment in which the company has operated for decades.