champlin oil, union pacific resources group, anadarko petroleum, deepwater horizon...

Champlin Oil


"In 1916, oil was discovered at Garber Field. Champlin bought the mineral rights from George Beggs, a farmer who resided in the area. Ary Champlin had encouraged him to do so.  

 He purchased a small refinery from Victor Bolene, and built a pipeline between it and Garber Field. In 1920, he purchased the Goodwell Oil Company which consisted of several bulk plants and service stations.

 During his lifetime, the Champlin Oil Company expanded to operate service stations and wholesale outlets in twenty midwestern states and drilling and production operations in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico.

 By Mr. Champlin’s death in 1944, the company employed over 800 people in Enid.

Following nine years of continued family ownership, the company went public in 1953. 

It had several owners:

1954: Purchased by the Chicago Corporation for $55,000,000. This parent company changed its name to Champlin Refining Company in 1956.

 
1964: The Celanese Company purchased the company. 

1970: The company was sold to Union Pacific Resources Company. 

1984: The operation was purchased by American Petrofina, which ultimately closed the refinery" 

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May 3, 1987 — The Union Pacific Corporation consolidated two subsidiaries, Champlin Petroleum and the Rocky Mountain Energy Company, into a single operating company called the Union Pacific Resources Group, Inc. 

 It said the change would permit further cost and productivity improvements in the natural resource businesses. (New York Times, May 4, 1987)

In 1995, Union Pacific Corporation combined all of its natural resource operations (Champlin Petroleum and Rocky Mountain Energy) into the Union Pacific Resources Group.  

In October 1995, Union Pacific sold a 17 percent stake to the public in an IPO. (New York Times, October 9, 1995)

On October 15, 1996, Union Pacific Corporation spun off its remaining 83 percent stake in Union Pacific Resources Group.  

At the time, Union Pacific Resources owned 

 7.5 million acres of land 

 in the western states that originally came to Union Pacific as mid-19th century land grants. (New York Times, November 17, 1996)
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UPC acquired Champlin Petroleum Company ("Champlin") in 1970 to manage the exploitation of its oil and gas operations on the Land Grant.  

The Land Grant consists of land granted by the Federal government to a predecessor of UPC in the mid-1800s which passes through the states of Colorado and Wyoming and into Utah and intersects several highly productive oil and gas basins.

In the Land Grant Area, the Company has fee ownership of the mineral rights under approximately 7.9 million acres constituting the initial Land Grant and controls the mineral rights under approximately 700,000 additional acres. In 1971, UPC combined its own oil and gas operations with those of Champlin.

In 1987, the Champlin name was changed to Union Pacific Resources Company ("UPRC") and UPRC also became responsible for managing UPC's hard mineral assets.
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In June 1997, Union Pacific Resources was reported as being

the largest domestic driller of oil and gas,

 for the past five years. (New York Times, June 24, 1997)
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the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 granted large chunks of western land for those attempting to lay railroad tracks across the continent. Union Pacific, the Goliath of railroading west of the Mississippi, was given 7.9 million acres in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.  

It wasn't until a good 50 years later that Union Pacific started to mine this land for oil, gas, and coal in earnest.

After growing the business both organically and through several acquisitions, Union Pacific found itself a major player in the natural resources market. In 1995, the railroad packaged together and spun off to shareholders all of its assets in gas and natural resources as Union Pacific Resources.

After Union Pacific Resources found itself independent of the railroad, it went about looking for acquisitions. Its first major deal, a hostile offer for Pennzoil at more than double today's prices, was derailed at the last moment in 1997. Still hungry for mergers and acquisitions, the company successfully bought Canada-based Norcen for $3.5 billion last year. Late in 1998, Union Pacific Resources decided to sell its midstream gas processing operations to Duke Energy for $1.35 billion to pare down debt and concentrate on upstream gas exploration.

 The company is now one of the largest gas exploration companies on the continent.
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In April 2000, Union Pacific Resources Group was purchased by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (Dallas Business Journal, April 3, 2000; Anadarko news release dated April 3, 2000)

Sale of Union Pacific Resources -- On July 14, 2000, Anadarko Petroleum announced the closing of its acquisition of Union Pacific Resources Group.  

Union Pacific became a wholly owned subsidiary of Anadarko.
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Transocean and Halliburton have settled some liabilities and the judge said they were shielded by indemnity clauses with BP.

Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp, which owned a quarter of the well, might have to pay fines under the Clean Water Act, though it has settled other claims with BP.
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In April 2014, Anadarko settled with the Federal Government to pay over $5 billion to clean up environmental waste sites around the country.

 It was the largest environmental contamination settlement in American history.
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Oligarchy