According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the United States consumed 7.14 billion barrels of oil in 2008, as oil companies around the world reaped record setting profits. A large portion of these earnings went to stock holders, research and development, maintenance, management and the employees. Some of these companies have headquarters in the United States and are American owned.
Chevron
Chevron has its headquarters located in San Ramon, California. The company traces its roots to Pico Canyon, north of Los Angeles, California, with the discovery of oil there in 1879. Pacific Coast Oil Company was the name at the time, but then changed it to Standard Oil Company of California. With the addition of Gulf Oil Corporation, the name changed to Chevron. Today, Chevron has very wide global reach, with retail outlets on six continents and power-generating facilities in the United States and Asia. Chevron produced 2.7 million barrels of net oil-equivalent per day in 2009, and 73 percent of that production occurred outside the United States.
ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil comes in at number two on the Fortune 500 listing America's top companies. According to its website, "ExxonMobil is the world's largest publicly traded international oil and gas company." The company began in 1859 with its first successful oil well drilling in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The name has changed dozens of times over the years as the company expanded and merged, finally settling on ExxonMobil in 1999. ExxonMobil owns refineries, retail stations and explores for oil and natural gas on six continents. The corporate headquarters are located in Irving, Texas.
ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips is the third-largest integrated energy company in America. Global operations make it the fourth-largest refiner in the world, including operations in more than 30 countries. The company has assets of $155 billion dollars and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The ConocoPhillips headquarters are located in Houston, Texas. The company has about 30,000 employees worldwide.
Sunoco
Sunoco was founded in 1886 when The Peoples Natural Gas Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania decided to diversify into the oil reserves discovered in Ohio. From there, the company began to acquire refineries, pipelines and tanks, expanding and growing for over 100 years. In 2009, Sunoco was listed as #78 on the Fortune 500. In 2004, Sunoco struck a deal to become the Official Fuel of NASCAR. Sunoco has its headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Tags: United States, headquarters located, company began, name changed, over years