Podcasts
Kosmos Energy: From Discovery to Disappointment
Kosmos Energy proved it could find major hydrocarbons. The harder problem was building a public company around discoveries that are rare, unpredictable and impossible to schedule.
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Articles
Kosmos Energy: From Discovery to Disappointment
Kosmos Energy found Jubilee, opened a major gas province offshore Mauritania and Senegal, and built a much larger E&P. Shareholders were left with something very different. This is the story of how exploration success failed to become shareholder value.
Podcasts
Upstream, Downstream and the Battle for Capital
For decades, upstream was treated as the economic heart of the integrated oil company. But Marathon, Murphy and ConocoPhillips produced a surprising result after separating their downstream businesses. What happened to the cash — and what does it tell us about oil-company strategy today?
Podcasts
Murphy Oil: What Happened to a Great Little Oil Company?
Murphy Oil was once an unusually complete and technically ambitious oil company for its size. Over the past decade, much of that business has been sold, separated or reshaped. This podcast looks at what Murphy built, what changed, and why the shareholder outcome has been far less impressive.
Public
When Downstream Beat Upstream — What three oil-company break-ups tell us
For decades, upstream was assumed to be the cash engine of the integrated oil company. But the post-separation performance of Marathon, Murphy and ConocoPhillips suggests the harder question is not where the cash is generated, but what management does with it.
Public
Murphy Oil: What Happened to a Great Little Oil Company?
Murphy Oil was once an unusually complete and technically ambitious oil company for its size. Over the past decade, much of that business has been sold, separated or reshaped. This article looks at what Murphy built, what changed, and why the shareholder outcome has been far less impressive.
Podcasts
PetroEquity Signal Boardroom Special: Shell Acquiring BP Episode One — Inside the Bank
Inside the fictional PetroEquity investment bank, Oberon and Jessica begin with a theoretical Shell acquisition of BP and show how a transformational M&A idea is originated, tested and judged before anyone has a mandate.
Public
ConocoPhillips Got Bigger. O’Brien Must Now Show Whether It Got Better
ConocoPhillips has announced Ryan Lance’s retirement as CEO, with Andy O’Brien taking over. The succession does not prove PetroEquity’s earlier argument, but it sharpens it: COP got bigger. O’Brien now has to show whether it got better.
Public
EOG Resources: The Company That Escaped Enron
excerpt for ghost EOG Resources began as Enron Oil & Gas. This is the story of how successive management teams turned technical insight, capital discipline and industry crises into one of the finest records of value creation in upstream.
Public
Exploration made the oil majors. But who still knows how to do it?
Who is the best explorer? Comparing ExxonMobil, Eni, TotalEnergies, BP, Shell and Chevron, asking who preserved the capability to find new resources, who lost strategic continuity, and who ultimately had to buy barrels discovered by somebody else.
Articles
Shell’s Trading Machine
Shell wants investors to place greater value on its trading and supply business, but outsiders still cannot see clearly how much it earns, how risks are controlled or how durable its advantage really is.
Articles
ConocoPhillips got bigger, but did it get better?
Before I began researching this article, I assumed ConocoPhillips was a relatively simple corporate story. It had spun off Phillips 66, disposed of much of its international inheritance and concentrated on unconventional oil and gas in the Lower 48. Successive purchases of Concho Resources, Shell’s Permian assets and Marathon