Take a look at a list of the top gas marketers in North America and you won't find many names associated with the upstream end of the business. Most of the high-volume trading companies are the market-maker types who don't have production assets to back up their futures and swap contracts.
One heavy hitter in the exploration and production sector, though, is trying to make a play for the upper echelon currently dominated by financial service-oriented marketers. Conoco-the integrated oil and gas company, linked at different times during the previous hundred years to the Rockefeller and DuPont family fortunes-is enacting a strategy to join the barons of the 21st century energy-marketing world.
With its U.S. gas production totaling almost 300 Bcf in 2000, Conoco believes it has a strong foundation to make a rapid ascent into the mega-marketer echelon. The scope of its production assets promises to grow even larger following the completion of its mergers with Gulf Canada Resources and Phillips Petroleum.
What sets Conoco apart from other major upstream players, though, is its expertise with managing financial instruments and transportation and storage capacity, says Mike Stice, president of Conoco Energy Solutions (CES). "Conoco has developed a level of commercial sophistication," explains Stice, whose tenure at Conoco totals 20 years. On his previous assignment, as president of Conoco Gas and Power Marketing, a unit of CES, Stice managed the company's trading operations during which time the company's marketed gas volumes grew by more than 50 percent.