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Energy Terms
- Additives Chemicals to control engine deposits
and improve lubricating performance.
- Barrels of oil-equivalent (BOE) A unit of measure
to quantify crude oil and natural gas amounts
using the same basis. Natural gas volumes are
converted to barrels on the basis of energy content.
See oil-equivalent gas and production.
- Biofuel Any fuel that is derived from biomass —
recently living organisms or their metabolic
byproducts — from sources such as farming, forestry,
and biodegradable industrial and municipal
waste. See renewables.
- Condensate Liquid hydrocarbons produced
with natural gas, separated by cooling and other
means.
- Development Drilling, construction and related
activities following discovery that are necessary
to begin production and transportation of crude
oil and natural gas.
- Enhanced recovery Techniques used to increase
or prolong production from crude oil and natural
gas fields.
- Exploration Searching for crude oil and/or natural
gas by utilizing geologic and topographical
studies, geophysical and seismic surveys, and
drilling of wells.
- Gas-to-liquids (GTL) A process that converts
natural gas into high-quality transportation fuels
and other products.
- Greenhouse gases Gases that trap heat in
the Earth's atmosphere (e.g., carbon dioxide,
methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons
and sulfur hexafluoride).
- Integrated energy company A company engaged
in all aspects of the energy industry: exploring
for and producing crude oil and natural gas
(upstream); refining, marketing and transporting
crude oil, natural gas and refined products
(downstream); manufacturing and distributing petrochemicals
(chemicals); and generating power.
- Liquefied natural gas (LNG) Natural gas that
is liquefied under extremely cold temperatures
to facilitate storage or transportation in specially
designed vessels.
- Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) Light gases, such
as butane and propane, that can be maintained as
liquids while under pressure.
- Natural gas liquids (NGL) Separated from natural
gas, these include ethane, propane, butane and
natural gasoline.
- Oil-equivalent gas (OEG) The volume of natural
gas needed to generate the equivalent amount
of heat as a barrel of crude oil. Approximately
6,000 cubic feet of natural gas is equivalent to
one barrel of crude oil.
- Oil sands Naturally occurring mixture of
bitumen (a heavy, viscous form of crude oil),
water, sand and clay. Using hydroprocessing technology,
bitumen can be refined to yield synthetic
crude oil.
- Petrochemicals Derived from petroleum; used
principally for the manufacture of chemicals,
plastics and resins, synthetic fibers, detergents,
adhesives, and synthetic motor oils.
- Production Total production refers to all the crude
oil and natural gas produced from a property.
Gross production is the company's share of total
production before deducting both royalties paid
to landowners and a government's agreed-upon
share of production under a production-sharing
contract. Net production is gross production minus
both royalties paid to landowners and a government's
agreed-upon share of production under a
production-sharing contract. Oil-equivalent production
is the sum of the barrels of liquids and the
oil-equivalent barrels of natural gas produced.
See barrels of oil-equivalent and oil-equivalent gas.
- Production-sharing contract A contractual
agreement between a company and a
government whereby the company bears all
exploration, development and production costs in
return for an agreed-upon share of production.
- Renewables Energy resources that are not
depleted when consumed or converted into other
forms of energy (e.g., solar, geothermal, ocean
and tide, wind, hydroelectric power, biofuels, and
hydrogen).
- Reserves Crude oil or natural gas contained in
underground rock formations called reservoirs.
Proved reserves are the estimated quantities
that geologic and engineering data demonstrate
can be produced with reasonable certainty
from known reservoirs under existing economic
and operating conditions. Estimates change
as additional information becomes available.
Oil-equivalent reserves are the sum of the liquids
reserves and the oil-equivalent gas reserves. See
barrels of oil-equivalent and oil-equivalent gas.
The rules of the United States Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) permit oil and gas
companies to disclose in their filings with the
SEC only proved reserves. Certain terms, such
as "probable" or "possible" reserves, "potentially
recoverable" volumes, or "resources,"
among others, may be used to describe certain
oil and gas properties in sections of this document
that are not filed with the SEC. We use
these other terms, which are not approved for
use in SEC filings, because they are commonly
used in the industry, are measures considered by
management to be important in making capital
investment and operating decisions, and provide
some indication to our stockholders of the
potential ultimate recovery of oil and gas from
properties in which we have an interest. In that
regard, potentially recoverable volumes are those
that can be produced using all known primary and
enhanced recovery methods.
- Synthetic crude oil A marketable and transportable
hydrocarbon liquid, resembling crude oil,
that is produced by upgrading highly viscous or
solid hydrocarbons, such as extra-heavy crude oil
or oil sands.
Financial Terms
- Cash flow from operating activities Cash generated
from the company's businesses, an indicator
of a company's ability to pay dividends and fund
capital programs. Excludes cash flows related to
the company's financing and investing activities.
- Cumulative effect of change in accounting principle
The effect on net income in the period of
change of a retroactive calculation and application
of a new accounting principle.
- Goodwill The excess of the purchase price
of an acquired entity over the total fair value
assigned to assets acquired and liabilities
assumed.
- Margin The difference between the cost of purchasing,
producing and/or marketing a product
and its sales price.
- Net income The primary earnings measure for
a company, as determined under United States
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
(GAAP), and detailed on a separate financial
statement.
- Return on capital employed (ROCE) Ratio calculated
by dividing net income (adjusted for
after-tax interest expense and minority interest)
by the average of total debt, minority interest and
stockholders' equity for the year.
- Stockholders' equity The owners' share of the
company — the difference between total assets
and total liabilities.
- Total stockholder return (TSR) The return to
stockholders as measured by stock price appreciation
and reinvested dividends for a period of
time.