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'Anadarko Petroleum Corporation' () is one of the world’s largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies, with 2.37 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) of proved reserves and a production of 190 million BOE in 2004. Ranked No. 345 on the "Fortune 500" list that year, the company has assets worth $20 billion^[1], and employs a worldwide workforce of about 3,400.

Contents

History

Technology

Activity

Other Productions

Merger

Kerr-McGee

Kerr-McGee History

Kerr McGee Locations

United States

Kerr-McGee Controversy

Environmental record

Financial Data

References

External links

History

Anadarko, a subsidiary of Panhandle Eastern Corporation (1928-1993; it has since been acquired by Southern Union Company), was formed in 1959 after the discovery of large amounts of natural gas in the Anadarko Basin (the basin comprises the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, and southwest Kansas), thus the company's name. It now has activities in more than a dozen countries. The United States, Canada and Algeria represent the majority of the company's proved reserves and production; U.S. onshore accounts for about 60%.
Anadarko announced on September 14th, 2006 that they had reached a deal to sell their Canadian assets, Anadarko Canada Corp., to Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.. The deal as announced is valued at $4.24 billion USD. At year end 2005, Anadarko Canada Corp. had proven reserves of 262 million BOE. ^[2]

Technology

Anadarko has been at the forefront of some of the industry's most significant technological advances in 3-D seismic imaging, drilling and completion technology, and reservoir management. As information is critical in this high-tech business, the company has been placing a lof of emphasis on state-of-the-art visualization technology. Together with Mechdyne Corporation, it has installed eight visualization laboratories in its headquarters complex at The Woodlands, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Dubbed the IDEA system, an acronym for "Image Delivery for Enhanced Awareness", the laboratories allow Anadarko to maximize its sophisticated modeling tools to better evaluate drilling prospects and investment options. -

Activity

Anadarko is involved in both upstream and downstream activities. In aggregating gas from the well head to the market, Anadarko’s range of services includes gathering, compression, treating and dehydration, and processing. Its market services include field area supply, market area supply, transportation optimization, and storage management.

Other Productions

Apart from oil and gas, Anadarko has a 'Minerals business unit' that manages its non-oil-and-gas mineral resources. The company holds approximately 7.5 million acres (30,000 km²) of fee mineral rights, located in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. These lands contain significant resources of coal, trona, limestone, titanium, zeolite, oil shale, and diamonds.

Merger

On June 23, 2006, Anadarko announced that they would acquire Kerr-McGee Corporation and Western Gas Resources for a combined total of $23.3 billion^[3].On August 10, 2006, Kerr McGee shareholders approved the buyout, and Kerr-McGee was merged into Anadarko.

Kerr-McGee

The 'Kerr-McGee Corporation' () is an energy company involved in the exploration and production of oil and gas resources. The company, founded in 1929, has about 11.4 billion U.S. dollars in assets as of 3/31/2006. The current CEO is Luke R. Corbett.
On June 23, 2006, Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation agreed to acquire Kerr-McGee in an all-cash transaction totaling $16.4 billion. Kerr-McGee shareholders voted to approve the offer on August 10, 2006. Kerr-McGee immediately ceased to exist as an independent entity, though many aspects of company procedure and policy (such as healthcare and benefits) will be retained for a period of time. As a result of the takeover, all operations will move out of the State of Oklahoma, where Kerr-McGee employed approximately 200 people at its Oklahoma City headquarters.

Kerr-McGee History

Kerr-McGee was initially focused in mostly off-shore oil exploration and production, being one of the first companies to use drillships in the Gulf of Mexico, and later one of the first companies to use a Spar type platform in the area. With the acquisition of the Oryx Energy Company of Dallas, Texas in 1999, Kerr-McGee gained more onshore assets, as well as significant assets in several foreign areas, most notably Algeria and western Kazakhstan. Later acquisitions of HS Resources and Westport established the base of operations in Denver, Colorado and added large resource areas throughout the Rocky Mountains.
Until 2005, Kerr-McGee had two major divisions: chemical and oil-related. On November 21, 2005, the chemical division of the company, based in Oklahoma City, was sold off by IPO as Tronox, thereby making Oklahoma City home to only the administrative side of Kerr-McGee, while all exploration and production management is located in Denver and Houston.

Kerr McGee Locations

;Mainland China
Oil operations are a cooperation with CNOOC based in Bohai Bay, near Beijing, with offices in Beijing.

United States

Main operations centers in the US are the Rocky Mountains and the Gulf of Mexico region. Main offices are located in downtown Denver and the Greenspoint area of Houston.
Corporate headquarters are located in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
;Other locations
Kerr-McGee and its subsidiaries formerly operated in western Kazakhstan, western Australia, and several other more minor locations around the world, though these ownings were sold off as part of a focus on domestic rather than international exploration.

Kerr-McGee Controversy

Kerr-McGee sued the Bush administration in a first-of-its-kind case to expand a royalty relief program for deep well natural gas and petrol exploration in publicly owned waters, despite record oil prices. The Federal government contends that Kerr-McGee owes the government billions of dollars in back royalties for natural gas and petrol resources which were developed on public leases. Kerr-McGee contends the royalty relief act cancels out the purported massive debt, which it contends is not owed anyway.
Kerr-McGee has since 2001 received international criticism for undertaking exploration for hydrocarbon resources offshore the Moroccan occupied area of Western Sahara. Shareholders have sold out of the company in protest. In June 2005, the Norwegian government sold its $52.7 million shares in the company, characterising Kerr-McGee's contract in Western Sahara as 'a particularly serious violation of fundamental ethical norms'. On May 2, 2005, the company declared its intention to no longer drill off the coast of the Sahara.

Environmental record

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst identified Kerr-McGee as the the 30th-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, with roughly 840,000 pounds of toxic chemicals released into the air annually.^[4] Major pollutants emitted by the corporation include chiefly manganese compounds, sulfuric acid, and carbonyl sulfide.^[5]
The Environmental Protection Agency named Kerr-McGee as a potentially responsible party in at least 21 Superfund toxic waste sites prior to its acquisition by Anadarko.^[6]

Financial Data

'Financial Data USD millions'^[7]

Year-end	2002	2003	2004	2005
Sales	3 860	5 122	6 067	7 101
EBITDA	3 505	4 328	5 358
Net income	825	1 287	1 601	2 466
Total debt	5 471	5 058	3 840	3 677

References

1. Anadarko statement of income (2005) (Pdf)
2. Anadarko sells Canada unit for .24B
3. Anadarko Press Release - Discussing Acquisition of Kerr-McGee Corp. and Western Gas Resources, Inc.
4. Political Economy Research Institute Toxic 100 retrieved 14 Aug 2007
5. Toxics Release Inventory courtesy rtknet.org
6. Center for Public Integrity
7. OPESC. Anadarko financial data

External links

★ Official Homepage

★ ''World Internet News'', April 2006, "Big Oil Looking for a Government Handout"