Are We Seeing the End of Big Oil?

Hugh Pickens writes "Cyrus Sanati writes in Fortune Magazine that up until now, it has been widely accepted that being bigger was better for oil companies, but the announcement that ConocoPhillips plans to break up into two separately traded companies, separating its exploration and production unit from its refining and marketing units, took Wall Street by surprise, raising uncomfortable questions about the future of Big Oil. 'That's because the exploration side and the refining side of the oil business have little to do with one another,' writes Sanati. 'Contrary to popular belief, Big Oil has almost no control over the price of oil these days. That power squarely rests with oil-rich nations that hold most of the world's oil reserves and the Wall Street banks and hedge funds that speculate and make markets in the oil trading game. So even though ExxonMobil pumps oil, it can't guarantee that its refining unit will be able to profitably process a barrel into gasoline or heating oil.' ... 'If the ConocoPhillips story is a success for shareholders, there will be calls to break up Big Oil just in time for the annual meetings in the spring. So by this time next year, it is possible that Big Oil will go the way of Rockefeller's once gargantuan Standard Oil — with the markets, not the government, forcing a break up this time.'"

Comments

Re:Yes but not because of that but

[jank1887]

we do use hydrogen as fuel. It just currently brings carbon along for the ride. you want to pay extra to separate the two first? go right ahead. you can't get it for free.

Re:With profits like these...

[TheRaven64]

Not just hiding profits, also splitting liability. BP is going to be paying a lot for the oil spill. Wouldn't it be so much more convenient if they didn't own or operate the rig and could just blame it on a small company, which could then pay its entire $1M capitalisation in compensation and then go bankrupt?

Re:With profits like these...

[vlm]

Not just hiding profits, also splitting liability. BP is going to be paying a lot for the oil spill. Wouldn't it be so much more convenient if they didn't own or operate the rig and could just blame it on a small company, which could then pay its entire $1M capitalisation in compensation and then go bankrupt?

You write as if you don't know very much about the oil business, at all. BP did not own nor operate the rig, TO did.

One problem you have not considered is your solution would probably have saved the gulf. TO and BP are multibillion dollar companies, and as such every interaction between them is handled almost lawerly, with infinite levels of ass covering and record keeping. As anyone who has ever worked in a situation like that knows, that leads to horrendous paralysis. Which is unfortunately exactly what you don't want on a drilling rig hovering over a 3 mile deep gas filled hole.

In your scenario, Mr Million dollar company says F U guys I'm hitting the big red switch and pumping the heavy kill pill downhole. Its only a million bucks not a billion. What actually happened was a lot of "you don't wanna be the guy who broke the billion dollar contract relationship" and "who is authorized vs who is liable to declare an emergency or not to" and "who gets to push what button when and why". Which is fine if you have all the time in the world, but if you don't then the platform blows up, everyones killed, and the gulf is flooded with oil, because you can sue individuals but you can't sue oil spewing out of a well.

Basically we have a super monopoly / ogliopoly situation now. That doesn't work so well. A bunch of little companies, even if a little artificial, would provide more efficient and safer operations overall.