ConocoPhillips

Energy
1700
NYSE: COP
USA

"Iran wants U.S. companies such as Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips to develop its oil and gas fields, the country's oil minister said Wednesday, signaling the Islamic Republic's readiness to court American business interests amid a thaw in relations with the West. Western companies are still banned by their governments from investing in Iran's oil and gas fields, and this is the first time Iran has named particular U.S. companies it would like to enter the country…Speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Iran's oil minister, Bijan Zanganeh, said, 'We have no limitations for U.S. companies.' Asked who he would like to see return or enter Iran, he named European giants Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Eni SpA, Statoil ASA and BP PLC. But he also named 'ConocoPhillips, Chevron.' 'I am talking to some of them,' he said, without saying which. In the 1990s, ConocoPhillips and Chevron tried to enter Iranian oil projects but their efforts were scuttled when Washington banned such investments for American companies. Many European companies, such as Total and Shell, did move in before being forced to completely pull out when the European Union forbid their presence in 2010." (Wall Street Journal, "Iran Wants U.S. Companies to Develop Oil Fields," 12/4/13)

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"ConocoPhillips did business in Iran through its British subsidiary, Conoco LTD, up until 2003, when it left the country. The company said it has no operations, assets or investments in Iran, either directly or indirectly its subsidiaries. But in 2004 it bought a minority stake in Lukoil, which continues to do business with Iran. A spokesperson for Lukoil said in addition to its contract with an Iranian oil company to develop an oil project in Uzbekistan, the company also sells gasoline to Iran. ConocoPhillips said it does not control Lukoil nor does it directly involved in Lukoil's Iran-related business. ConocoPhillips spokesperson John McLemore confirmed that the company profits from it due to its 20 percent investment in the company."  The company has received $1.7 billion from the US government for their investments in Iran during 2000-2009.  The New York Times lists the company's business in Iran as active.  (The New York Times, "Profiting from Iran, and the US," 3/6/2010)

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Listed by U.S. Government as doing business in Iran. (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, List of Companies Doing Business With State Sponsors Of Terror, Removed from the internet in July of 2007)

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"A top executive of Halliburton Company told lawmakers here yesterday that the corporation does not intend to resume business in Iran now that it has completed its current contracts. In addition to Halliburton, those corporations in include General Electric, ConocoPhillips, and Aon." (The New York Sun, "Halliburton Says It Has No Plans To Go Back To Iran," 5/01/07)