Randy Kirk

Largest Companies in the World

It's interesting to not see Citigroup and Bank of America listed among the top firms by market capitalization - when they are listed in the top 10 of the 2007 Forbes Global 2000 -- goes to show the effects of the current financial crisis. Interesting to see HSBC and the Chinese Banks not affected to nearly the degree as BofA and Citi.

Also interesting to see that almost all the firms are down year to date except Wal-Mart and J&J. (would expect to see a higher percentage of larger firms, which are expected to be more "safe" than smaller firms, holding their own in a down market).

Petrobras' Tupi Discovery Will Likely Be Profitable

User 130406 -- thanks for that comment -- I rechecked XOM's 10-K and you are right -- I'll change that in the story above. Where, I'm wondering, did you get Exxon Mobil's 2P reserves? I don't think Exxon is required to make that information public.

Note that there are some issues with regards to XOM's unconsolidated equity oil and gas reserves, as they are mainly natural gas -- 5.8 Bn barrels of natural gas oil equivalent in the equity portion unconsolidated and 2.652 Billion barrels of oil unconsolidated, for XOM at year end 2006, and these natural gas reserves are mainly in Qatar, in the Pars gas field. On page 88 to page 92 of XOM 2006 10-K, the majority of the equity accounted for natural gas reserves of XOM are in Asia/Middle East 22,184 bcf out of the total 35,080 bcf unconsolidated -- which I suspect is mainly Qatar, -- the Investment Banker Matthew Simmons give an interview in 2004 which he stated the majority of XOM's reserves increases were due to the Pars gas field: www.theoildrum.com/sto.... XOM is the equity partner on Qatar's portion of the Pars natural gas field. www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/c... Note that XOM's equivalent equity portion of its natural gas reserves in the Middle East is 21,184 billion cubic feet compared to 32,480 bcf for all of XOM's consolidated natural gas reserves. The Pars gas field (the largest gas field in the world) is split geographically between Iran and Qatar -- part of the field lies in Qatar territory and part in Iran) -- there are some lingering issues between sharing of the field between Iran and Qatar (see: the this excellent story by the blog the Oil Drum for details www.theoildrum.com/sto...). Note that the Pars natural gas field is absolutely huge at an estimated 220 billion barrels of oil equivalent www.rigzone.com/news/a..., As an investor I wouldn't be 100% confident of reserves and production coming to the US without significant taxation/other governmental issues through the Pars gas field, due to Qatar, Iranian governmental issues.

In terms of oil, a significant percentage of XOM's unconsolidated oil reserves are in Russia, 841 M barrels out of 2,656 M barrels -- which is mainly represented by projects on Sakhalin, I believe. Note that the rest of Sakhalin has tremendous issues with regards to Exxon receiving its fair share of the oil revenues due to the aggressive attitude of Russia. Significant profits on XOM's Russian unconsolidated reserves may not be realized, due to Russian taxation and other hard line policies.

On in XOM 10-k for 2006, Imperial Oil is consolidated according to the reserves statement on pages 88 to 92: www.sec.gov/Archives/e...

Bright Future Ahead for Petrobras

Update: Petrobras announced today an additional discovery in its Tupi Oil field in the Santos Basin of up to 8 billion barrels: www.bloomberg.com/apps...
To put the 8 billion barrel number in perspective, Exxon Mobil's total oil equivalent reserves were at year end 06 approximately 13.37 billion barrels (oil and natural gas equivalents). Overall, this discovery, if it proves produceable (as it appears to be) should position Petrobras firmly as an "Oil Supermajor."

Further, both the Santos Basin and the Campos Basin remain relatively under-explored in comparison with the Gulf of Mexico, so additional exploration is likely to lead to more discoveries (in addition to Tupi) in future years. Also, after the Campos and Santos basins, Petrobras can move up and down the coast of Brazil in future years to develop new areas for oil as both the Campos and Santos Basins represent relatively small overall territories in comparison with the total offshore area of Brazil: www.rigzone.com/news/i...

Bright Future Ahead for Petrobras

Update: Petrobras announced today an additional discovery in its Tupi Oil field in the Santos Basin of up to 8 billion barrels: www.bloomberg.com/apps...
To put the 8 billion barrel number in perspective, Exxon Mobil's total oil equivalent reserves were at year end 06 approximately 13.37 billion barrels (oil and natural gas equivalents). Overall, this discovery, if it proves produceable (as it appears to be) should position Petrobras firmly as an "Oil Supermajor."

Further, both the Santos Basin and the Campos Basin remain relatively under-explored in comparison with the Gulf of Mexico, so additional exploration is likely to lead to more discoveries (in addition to Tupi) in future years. Also, after the Campos and Santos basins, Petrobras can move up and down the coast of Brazil in future years to develop new areas for oil as both the Campos and Santos Basins represent relatively small overall territories in comparison with the total offshore area of Brazil: www.rigzone.com/news/i...