In the early and mid-1980s.
Sad Years —— Seven Sisters changed into Six Sisters.
In 1980s, important changes took place in the world oil market-the oil market began to change from a seller's market to a buyer's market. In the 1970s, the sharp rise in oil prices curbed oil consumption. High oil prices have stimulated exploration and exploitation all over the world. Oil production in the North Sea in Europe and Alaska in the United States has gradually entered the peak period, and the output of non-OPEC countries has increased rapidly. In the 1980s, the world oil supply exceeded demand, and oil prices tended to be weak. 198 1 in March, the oil price dropped from the peak of $43 per barrel to $29. When the sales of oil companies fall, their profits will also fall. At the same time, costs are rising. Most of the crude oil processed by international oil companies comes from market supply. The past era of low-cost exploitation on leased land is gone forever, while crude oil from Alaska and Beihai can replace crude oil supply in the 1970s, and the production cost is much higher.
In a word, the early 1980s was a sad year for international oil companies. From 1980 to 1985, the reserves of the seven major oil companies have not changed much. The supply of crude oil decreased by 37%, the processing volume of crude oil decreased by 25%, the sales volume of petroleum products decreased by 12%, and the profits decreased by 44%.
In this case, the seven giants have adjusted their business strategies and taken austerity measures. Gulf oil company decided to give up its foreign business and shrink its business scope back to the United States. 1982- 1984, it sold all its downstream businesses in this big European market, including refineries and gas stations. Chevron 1983 announced that it would abandon its downstream business in Western Europe and strengthen its business in the United States. Exxon and Mobil sold a large number of non-oil businesses acquired in cash in the second half of 1970s, and stopped large-scale oil sands development projects in Canada and shale oil development projects in Colorado, USA.
The company generally reduced the refining capacity, shut down small refineries and old equipment with low efficiency and high consumption, and carried out technical transformation. Compared with 1980 in 1985, the total refining capacity of five American companies in Seven Sisters decreased by 27%, from16.05 million barrels per day (2198,600 tons) to1170.
At the same time, there has been a worldwide upsurge of merger and reorganization of oil companies. First, Shell Oil Company of the United States acquired Bellich Company of the United States for $3.65 billion. Then Texaco annexed Getty; Mobil annexed superior; Anglo-Dutch Shell turned American Shell into a wholly-owned subsidiary; Chevron annexed the bay, making "Seven Sisters" a "six sisters".
1986-2002
Three oil price collapses and the final formation of the super six giants
1986- 1998, 13, oil prices plunged three times in the world, and oil companies suffered heavy losses. These three oil price plunges have a great impact on the oil industry and oil giants, especially the price plunge of 1998, which triggered a wave of mergers and acquisitions of global oil companies and promoted the formation of Super Six.
(1) 1986 Oil price collapse and its impact
From 65438 to 0986, the biggest oil price war occurred in the world since the founding of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The initiators are Saudi Arabia and other major oil-producing countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The reason is that in 1982- 1985, in order to stabilize the world oil market supply, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has always adopted the policy of limiting production and protecting prices, while non-OPEC countries have been working hard to produce, resulting in a gradual decline in the market share of OPEC countries. In order to safeguard the interests of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Saudi Arabia has been acting as a mobile oil producer under the policy framework of limiting production and protecting prices. Its oil output dropped from 9.8 million barrels per day in 198 1 to 3 1800 barrels per day in 1985, while other OPEC members failed to strictly enforce the production restriction discipline and exceeded the quota, resulting in huge losses for Saudi Arabia. 1In July 1985, Saudi Arabia announced that it would no longer act as a mobile oil producer. In February of the same year, in 65438, the Council of Ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to abandon the policy of limiting production and insuring prices and adopt the policy of defending market share instead. As a result, an oil price war was launched among oil-producing countries, and the average spot price of Arabian light oil in July 1986 dropped from $26.92/barrel in February 1985 to $8.63/barrel. The collapse of oil prices has made the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries the biggest victim. 1986 The upstream profit ratio 1985 of the seven major companies (American Amoco replaced Gulf Oil Company) decreased by 5 1.9%, and the operating profit decreased by 13. 1%.
The plunge in oil prices is not caused by the shrinking world consumption, but by a serious oversupply. Therefore, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to resume the policy of limiting production and protecting price from 1987 65438+ 10/and determined the reference oil price of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as 1 8 USD/barrel, the oil price began to pick up gradually.
(2)1991-1993 economic recession, oil price collapse and its impact.
199 1 year, 1 month, the world experienced an economic recession. In that year, the world GDP growth rate dropped to 2.2%, of which the GDP growth rate of industrial countries was only 0.3%. World oil consumption has stagnated at the level of 365,438+35 million tons. 1992 became a year of unprecedented deterioration in the turnover of international oil companies. The demand for oil has fallen sharply, while the global oil production capacity is increasing, and oil prices fluctuate frequently.
Compared with 199 1 year, the profits of the seven major oil companies in192 decreased by 18.8%, and not only the upstream, but also the downstream and the chemical industry fell into recession. 1992, Exxon's profit dropped from $5.6 billion in the previous year to $4.8 billion, down by14.8%; Mobil decreased from $6,543.8+$92 million to $860 million, a decrease of 55.2%; Texaco dropped from $654.38+$300 million to $700 million, a decrease of 45%; Shell dropped from $6.6 billion in 1990 to $4.4 billion; On the other hand, BP faced unprecedented difficulties in decades, from a profit of $800 million to a loss of $460 million, which led to the resignation of the newly appointed chairman and CEO, R. Horton. Among the six giants, only Chevron stands out, with a profit of $2.21billion in192, an increase of 20.9% over the previous year's $156 million, maintaining the highest return on investment (15%) among the big oil companies, because it is in/kloc.
1993 The world GDP actually increased by 2.9% over the previous year, among which the industrial countries increased by 1.8%, both of which were lower than the previous year. Due to the continuous production increase of OPEC and non-OPEC oil-producing countries, the international oil price fell sharply at 1993, and the lowest WTI crude oil in the United States fell to 14.06 USD/barrel. Compared with the spot average price of the same variety 1992, WTI decreased by 10.3%, Rotterdam refined oil decreased by 8.3%, and Singapore refined oil decreased by 6.9%. Although the prices of crude oil and refined oil both fell, the price of crude oil fell even more, and the cost of refinery crude oil decreased accordingly. Therefore, for the integrated large oil companies, the downstream net income has driven the increase of the overall net income.
(3) The plunge of oil price from 65438 to 0998 and its impact.
1In the second half of 1997, the financial crisis in Southeast Asia broke out and quickly spread to South Korea and Japan.198 further expanded to Russia, Latin America and even the United States and Europe, and the world economic situation deteriorated rapidly. At this time, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries made a wrong judgment and decided to increase the production quota of 2 million barrels per day (654.38 billion tons/year) in June1997165438+10. The situation of oversupply led to another sharp drop in oil prices. Although OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers cut production in 1998, they still failed to reverse the plunge in oil prices. The annual average spot price of WTI fell to 14.39 USD/barrel, and the low point fell to 10.76 USD/barrel. Excluding the price factor, it has fallen to the level before the first oil crisis 1973.
The sharp drop in oil prices has caused a great shock in the oil industry. In order to cope with this situation, major oil companies have adopted large-scale asset restructuring, complementary advantages and strong alliances. For example, from 65438 to 0996, Shell and Amoco merged their oil field assets in the Pamen (Permian) basin in the southwestern United States and established Aldora Energy Company to reduce production costs and improve operational efficiency. BP and Mobil merged their downstream businesses in Europe, covering 43 countries in Europe, with assets exceeding $5 billion and sales of nearly $200 million. Among them, 70% of the shares belong to BP, and the fuel oil business of the two companies is operated by BP and uses the BP brand; 30% of the shares belong to Mobil, which operates two lubricating oil businesses and uses the trademark of Mobil. Texaco, Star and Shell of the United States form the largest downstream joint company in the United States, with assets exceeding $654.38+00 billion. Continental Oil Company and Phillips Company merged their oil refining, sales, storage and transportation business in the United States, becoming the sixth largest oil refiner in the United States, with an oil refining capacity of 38.5 million tons/year and 12000 gas stations. Shell and Exxon merged their global additive business and became the third largest additive supplier in the world, with a market share of 25%.
Another way is the merger of companies. This wave of merger has crossed the national border and the Atlantic Ocean, and European capital is obviously in an advantageous position. For example, 1998 BP acquired Amoco in the United States, and 1999 acquired Acoco, another independent oil company in the United States and one of the top 500 companies in the world. 1998 12, the two largest oil companies in the United States and the former "Seven Sisters" ExxonMobil merged into ExxonMobil. In the same year, France Total merged Belgium Fina and its sister company Elf. In 2000, two sisters of the original "Seven Sisters", American Chevron Company and Texaco Company, merged to form the new Chevron Company. In 2002, two independent American oil companies, Continental Oil Company (1996) and Phillips merged to form ConocoPhillips.
In this way, the world oil industry formed a new pattern in 2003. In terms of sales revenue, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell all exceeded $200 billion, reaching $237 billion, $232.6 billion and $268.9 billion respectively. Chevron, Total and ConocoPhillips exceeded US$ 65.438+00 billion, which were US$ 65.438+02 billion, US$ 65.438+06.5438+08.2 billion and US$ 65.438+005/kloc-0.0 billion respectively. These six international oil companies are called the six "super oil giants".
It is worth noting that in the previous "oil Seven Sisters", the United States accounted for five, and Europe accounted for two. Among the six super giants, there are three in the United States and three in Europe. Compared with the "Seven Sisters" period, the status of European capital has been greatly improved.