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The media’s watching Vault! Here’s a sampling of our coverage. “For those hoping to climb the ladder of success, [Vault’s] insights are priceless.” – Money magazine “The best place on the web to prepare for a job search.” – Fortune “[Vault guides] make for excellent starting points for job hunters and should be purchased by academic libraries for their career sections [and] university career centers.” – Library Journal “The granddaddy of worker sites.” – U.S. News and World Report “A killer app.” – New York Times One of Forbes’ 33 “Favorite Sites” – Forbes “To get the unvarnished scoop, check out Vault.” – Smart Money Magazine “Vault has a wealth of information about major employers and jobsearching strategies as well as comments from workers about their experiences at specific companies.” – The Washington Post “A key reference for those who want to know what it takes to get hired by a law firm and what to expect once they get there.” – New York Law Journal “Vault [provides] the skinny on working conditions at all kinds of companies from current and former employees.” – USA Today

ENERG OIL&G EMPL VAULT GUIDE TO THE TOP

ENERGY & OIL/GAS EMPLOYERS

TYYA N. TURNER AND THE STAFF OF VAULT

© 2005 Vault Inc.

Copyright © 2005 by Vault Inc. All rights reserved. All information in this book is subject to change without notice. Vault makes no claims as to the accuracy and reliability of the information contained within and disclaims all warranties. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Vault Inc. Vault, the Vault logo, and “the most trusted name in career informationTM” are trademarks of Vault Inc. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, contact Vault Inc., 150 W. 22nd St., 5th Floor, New York, NY 10011, (212) 366-4212. Library of Congress CIP Data is available. ISBN 1-58131-318-7 Printed in the United States of America

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to everyone who had a hand in making this book possible, especially Tyya Turner, Marcy Lerner, Mary Conlon, Elena Boldeskou and Kelly Shore. We are also extremely grateful to Vault’s entire staff for all their help in the editorial, production and marketing processes. Vault also would like to acknowledge the support of our investors, clients, employees, family, and friends. Thank you!

Wondering what it’s like to work at a specific employer?

3M | A.T. Kearney | ABN Amro | AOL Time Warner | AT&T | AXA | Abbott Laboratorie Accenture | Adobe Systems | Advanced Micro Devices | Agilent Technologies | Alco nc. | Allen & Overy | Allstate | Altria Group | American Airlines | American Electri Power | American Express | American International Group | American Managemen Systems | Apple Computer | Applied Materials | Apria Healthcare Group | AstraZeneca Automatic Data Processing | BDO Seidman | BP | Bain & Company | Bank One | Bank o America | Bank of New York | Baxter | Bayer | BMW | Bear Stearns | BearingPoint BellSouth | Berkshire Hathaway | Bertelsmann | Best Buy | Bloomberg | Boeing | Boo Allen | Borders | Boston Consulting Group | Bristol-Myers Squibb | Broadview nternational| Brown Brothers Harriman | Buck Consultants| CDI Corp.| CIBC Worl Markets | CIGNA | CSX Corp| CVS Corporation | Campbell Soup Company| Cap Gemin Ernst & Young| Capital One | Cargill| | Charles Schwab | ChevronTexaco Corp. | Chiquit Brands International | Chubb Group | Cisco Systems | Citigroup | Clear Channel | Cliffor Chance LLP | Clorox Company | Coca-Cola Company | Colgate-Palmolive | Comcast Comerica | Commerce BanCorp | Computer Associates | Computer Science Corporation | ConAgra | Conde Nast | Conseco | Continental Airlines | Corning Corporate Executive Board | Covington & Burling | Cox Communications | Credit Suiss First Boston | D.E. Shaw | Davis Polk & Wardwell | Dean & Company | Dell Computer Deloitte & Touche | Deloitte Consulting | Delphi Corporation | Deutsche Bank | Dewe Ballantine | DiamondCluster International | Digitas | Dimension Data | Dow Chemical Dow Jones | Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein | Duracell | Dynegy Inc. | EarthLink Eastman Kodak | Eddie Bauer | Edgar, Dunn & Company | El Paso Corporation Electronic Data Systems | Eli Lilly | Entergy Corporation | Enterprise Rent-A-Car | Erns & Young | Exxon Mobil | FCB Worldwide | Fannie Mae | FedEx Corporation | Federa Reserve Bank of New York | Fidelity Investments | First Data Corporation | FleetBosto Financial | Ford Foundation | Ford Motor Company | GE Capital | Gabelli Asse Management | Gallup Organization | Gannett Company | Gap Inc | Gartner | Gateway Genentech | General Electric Company | General Mills | General Motors | Genzyme Georgia-Pacific | GlaxoSmithKline | Goldman Sachs | Goodyear Tire & Rubber | Gran Thornton LLP | Guardian Life Insurance | HCA | HSBC | Hale and Dorr | Halliburton Hallmark | Hart InterCivic | Hartford Financial Services Group | Haverstick Consulting Hearst Corporation | Hertz Corporation | Hewitt Associates | Hewlett-Packard | Hom Depot | Honeywell | Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin | Household International | IBM KON Office Solutions | ITT Industries | Ingram Industries | Integral | Intel | Internationa Paper Company | Interpublic Group of Companies | Intuit | Irwin Financial | J. Walte Thompson | J.C. Penney | J.P. Morgan Chase | Janney Montgomery Scott | Janu Capital | John Hancock Financial | Johnson & Johnson | Johnson Controls | KLA-Tenco Corporation | Kaiser Foundation Health Plan | Keane | Kellogg Company | Ketchum Kimberly-Clark Corporation | King & Spalding | Kinko’s | Kraft Foods | Kroger | Kur Salmon Associates | L.E.K. Consulting | Latham & Watkins | Lazard | Lehman Brothers Lockheed Martin | Logica | Lowe’s Companies | Lucent Technologies | MBI | MBNA Manpower | Marakon Associates | Marathon Oil | Marriott | Mars & Company | McCann Erickson | McDermott, Will & Emery | McGraw-Hill | McKesson | McKinsey & Compan Merck & Co. | Merrill Lynch | Metropolitan Life | Micron Technology | Microsoft | Mille Brewing | Monitor Group | Monsanto | Morgan Stanley | Motorola | NBC | Nestle | Newe Rubbermaid | Nortel Networks | Northrop Grumman | Northwestern Mutual Financia Network | Novell | O’Melveny & Myers | Ogilvy & Mather | Oracle | Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe | PA Consulting | PNC Financial Services | PPG Industries | PRTM | PacifiCar Health Systems | PeopleSoft | PepsiCo | Pfizer | Pillsbury Winthrop | Pitne Go| Pharmacia to www.vault.com Bowes | Preston Gates & Ellis | PricewaterhouseCoopers | Principal Financial Group Procter & Gamble Company | Proskauer Rose | Prudential Financial | Prudentia Securities | Putnam Investments | Qwest Communications | R.R. Donnelley & Sons

Read what EMPLOYEES have to say about: • • • • •

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Table of Contents INTRODUCTION

1

Energy Industry History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Understanding the New Energy Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Types of Energy Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 The Oil and Gas Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Getting Hired . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

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Alliant Energy Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Amerada Hess Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 American Electric Power Company, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Anadarko Petroleum Corporation

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Baker Hughes Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 BP p.l.c. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 ChevronTexaco Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 ConocoPhillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 Consolidated Edison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 Duke Energy Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 Eaton Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88 Edison International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94 Exelon Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 Exxon Mobil Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105 FirstEnergy Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113 GE Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121 Halliburton Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130 Marathon Oil Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138 Occidental Petroleum Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143 Pacific Gas & Electric Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149 Schlumberger Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155 Shell Oil Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160 Sunoco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167 TXU Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .172

Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Introduction

Unocal Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180 Valero Energy Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .184 Williams Companies, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189

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Introduction Today’s energy industry is almost unrecognizable from the relatively staid business of only 10 years ago. The changes have brought both unexpected opportunities and devastating uncertainties, and this is by no means the first time the industry has faced such upheavals. Throughout its history, energy has been an industry that welcomes innovation and fresh perspectives. With the array of careers available in energy – and the certainty that people need to buy what they sell – makes it worth a close look by job seekers.

Energy Industry History The beginnings The modern electricity industry in America was born with the work of Thomas Edison in 1878. People had known about electricity for generations before him – think Benjamin Franklin and his kite – and the practical applications of harnessed electric power were clear to everyone. By the time Edison turned his considerable imagination to the problem he already had a reputation as an innovative thinker and clever businessman. It is a bit of an exaggeration to say he ‘invented’ the lightbulb; rather he fine-tuned the filaments inside the bulb to create the first commercially viable, safe, and efficient means of indoor lighting. In September 1878 Edison announced his breakthrough design to the world, and in a matter of days potential investors flooded his workshop in Menlo Park, New Jersey, with bids to market the new technology. A month after his discovery, he incorporated the Edison Electric Light Company, and a month after that he devised the first electric meter. A few years later his first power plant opened in lower Manhattan, and an industry was born. Throughout the 1880s companies sprang up across the country and the globe to provide service. A number of these companies were franchises Edison set up himself, and many of their descendant operations still bear his name. Early power companies were limited to only a few city blocks because of primitive generation and transmission technology. But slowly, new technology emerged, and more and more companies jumped into the growing market in a pell-mell fashion. By the early 20th century, most major cities Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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had a number of utilities, serving the approximately 8 percent of American homes that had electricity. These early days were the wild adolescence of the industry, and business could be cutthroat. There are stories about companies hiring gangs of thugs to chop down competitor’s power lines. Overtime, the industry began to understand the value of economies of scale in providing service by using bigger turbine generators. Waves of consolidation began to create industry giants. Yet the early power system remained inefficient, redundant, and expensive. It was still considered a luxury item, and the emergence of “natural monopolies” where one utility would dominate the market began to worry some reformers. Some states began to experiment with tighter regulation, but the industry changed dramatically in the 1930s, when two major initiatives from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal recast electricity as an essential service.

Transforming the industry The first initiative culminated in the enactment of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, better known as PUHCA. This sweeping law had the practical consequence of identifying electricity as a vital service fundamentally different from regular good and services, and subjected the industry to a host of conditions and requirements it needed to meet. Each utility was allowed to operate as a full, vertical monopoly over a specific geographic space, or service area. Companies would be allowed to generate power in their plants, transmit it over their wires, and sell it to consumers who would have no choice about who to buy their power from. In exchange , every aspect of their business – from where they could built what, to what they could charge customers – would be subject to approval by state regulators. The second initiative was to ensure every American had access to electricity through rural electrification programs. In the old system, there was absolutely no incentive for a company to string out a power line to one single farmhouse miles and miles away from the rest of the power grid. As a result, in 1930 only 10 percent of American farms had service, making life much harder for them than need be. Part of the New Deal was a package of laws that set up federal agencies to ensure power got to them, and to work out means to pay for it. One continuing legacy of this initiative are the large public power authorities that still provide service in many parts of the country. 2

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The regulated system remained in place for decades, and with everything micromanaged, energy became the sleepiest major industry in America. Consumers began to take cheap and reliable electricity for granted. Investors eagerly entrusted long-term investments with these companies whose dividends came back like clockwork. Researchers continued to slowly develop new technologies, and the business side stagnated. Executives were thought to have the easiest jobs in corporate America, while lawyers and policy specialists remained mired in the trench warfare of rate hike petitions and siting permission cases with regulators which could take years to settle. Trends moved at glacial speeds, with a few exceptions. One trend was the emergence of nuclear power, which many enthusiastically predicted would usher in the era of electricity that was “too cheap to meter.” Through the 1960s and 1970s many utilities sank piles of money building nuclear plants, taking on huge amounts of closely managed debt along the way. But the optimism disappeared overnight with the Three Mile Island incident in 1979. Nuclear plants, once the wave of the future, became white elephants for their owners, who were saddled with huge insurance, maintenance, and security costs. Another major development was the move toward opening the power grid to new technologies and renewable power sources in the 1970s. Most of the time, there was very little incentive for utilities to invest in unproven, emerging technologies. They were too expensive to build, and produced too little power, compared with a big, dirty coal-fired power plant. But public demand began to turn with the early environmental movement, leading to passage of the Clean Air Act, which had serious implications for the power industry. Meanwhile, the general energy crisis of the decade made people rethink electricity as well, and President Jimmy Carter included it in his push for a new energy policy. The trends culminated in the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, better known as PURPA. The law included a number of provisions revising, and in some cases loosening, the strict regulatory protocol. Among them, it allowed private companies to build power plants – known under the law as “qualifying facilities,” or QFs – and required utilities to purchase the power they produced. The provision was designed to encourage investment in renewable technologies like wind and solar power, and it worked to an extent. But it also provided a critical opening for early natural gas power plants. Today the vast majority of planned power to be built in coming decades is Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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fueled by natural gas, which is relatively cheap and clean and better adaptable to hourly demand conditions. Today, PURPA is seen as one of the first moves of the deregulation of the energy industry.

Deregulation The tidy and highly regulated energy world underwent massive transformation starting in the 1980s, when proponents of deregulation turned their attention to electricity. They were encouraged by the success of other industries that were deregulated in the 1970s, like airlines, trucking, and telecommunications. A major proof of their argument was the successful deregulation of the natural gas industry, which shared many key aspects with electricity. Both were essential commodities that required contiguous systems and a high-degree of coordination. After many years of debate and tinkering, free market principles applied to natural gas markets brought down prices, and encouraged new investment. According to proponents, such principles must work for electricity as well. Without government controls, more companies would join the market to compete, bringing prices down. Companies would be encouraged to invest in new technologies, which would create more efficient and environmentally friendly systems. Providers would be beholden to their customers, who would be able to pick and choose among them for the best deal. Deregulation had its opponents. Many cited the same reasons that had propelled the debate in the 1930s. They warned that electricity was an essential service, and that consumers must be protected from raw market forces. After all, companies would be serving their shareholders foremost, not their customers, and the urge to cut costs could lead to disaster. They also pointed out that electricity is a different type of commodity than airline routes and gas pipelines: electrons move instantaneously, and rely on incredibly complex systems. Without the right balance, the system would crash and everyone would be in the dark. In many states, the proponents won by appealing to many different sides of the debate. Utility companies were excited because they would no longer have to maintain big, expensive power plants – and many salivated at the prospect of unloading their costly nuclear plants. They eagerly looked forward to a new market in which they could become light, nimble, modern companies with the glamour and profit-margins of dot.com start-ups. A host 4

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of other companies – mostly trading and gas companies – eagerly eyed the chance to get a piece of a multibillion dollar market that had been largely closed to them for so long. Customers were fascinated by the promise of lower monthly utility bills, and politicians were eager to be the ones to proclaim in the next election that they helped lower voters’ power bills. State by state, legislatures began to craft laws to deregulate and bring competition to their states. Regulators rewrote market rules, and a whole new crop of retailers, traders, and investors joined the market. Energy companies suddenly began to recruit top-notch MBA candidates and the most promising young scientists and engineers, none of whom would have thought twice about the boring energy sector of just ten years earlier. Not everyone jumped on the bandwagon though. States that already had low electricity rates – like some Rocky Mountain states and some in the deep South – saw no reason to fuss with their system and took a pass. Efforts to deregulate at the federal level never picked up enough steam, and only some slight changes were passed.

Deregulation gone haywire The hesitant ones appeared visionary after 2000, when things suddenly began to go wrong. The California energy crisis that began that year was a glaring cautionary example for the entire industry, and it almost single-handedly brought the deregulation movement to a screeching halt. States suddenly began to reconsider their deregulation plans, or sought to scale back the ones they had already passed. This blow was quickly followed in late 2001 by the spectacular collapse of Enron, which horrified the industry. In a matter of months, the eighth largest company in America was exposed as a gigantic fraud as it dissolved into bankruptcy and infamy. Along the way, it tarred the reputation of the whole corps of new energy services company that had emerged to compete in the new markets. They were branded “energy pirates,” and saw their high-flying hopes vanish along with their market cap. All this drama played out against a recession and capital crunch that hurt the energy industry as badly as any other. Despite all this, the genie of competition shows no sign of going back in the bottle. The current political climate in Washington and most state capitals remains committed to the idea of competition and restructured energy Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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markets, though they are pursuing their goals in a less hard-charging and more deliberate attitude. The industry has responded to the current challenges by maturing and rethinking the irrational exuberance of its youth. And hopes that the industry will bounce back are underpinned by one salient fact everyone agrees upon: as long as people are attached to their computers, televisions, and lightbulbs, there will always be demand for the industry’s goods and services.

Understanding the New Energy Industry Today’s industry is a mosaic of businesses and sectors, some old some new, operating in many different environments and frameworks. This is a basic look at how things stand today around the nation. Individual corporations can have operations in many different sectors, depending on their regulatory restrictions and corporate strategies, so they are by no means exclusive.

Generation These are the operations that create the power. The basic production facilities – known as “base-load plants” – burn fossil fuels, and create hundreds of megawatts per hour. The workhorse of American power generation remains coal, which is cheap and abundant in the United States, and fuels roughly half of the nation’s electricity load. The problem is that it is also the dirtiest fuel source available, and many plants today operate under “grandfather” exemptions to the Clean Air Act or with a host of expensive filtering equipment to keep it compliant with Environmental Protection Agency rules. The other major base load fuel – accounting for about 20 percent of the nation’s load – is nuclear power. These plants produce very large amounts of electricity from very little fuel, with no air pollution. But ever since Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the drawbacks have been obvious. Though unlikely, an accident would be unthinkably catastrophic. The plants produce considerable amounts of thermal pollution – usually in the form of hot water that cannot be simply dumped into a river or reservoir. And in recent years, the problem of what to do with spent fuel rods has become critical. In 2001, over vociferous opposition, Congress allowed the U.S. Department of Energy to begin work on a permanent nuclear fuel dump at Yucca Mountain in 6

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Nevada. Until then, spent nuclear fuel will continue to be stored where it always has been: in closely monitored pools near the reactor where they were used. The remaining 30 percent of the nation’s electric load is accounted for by natural gas and renewable power sources. Gas in particular has been a favorite fuel source, and is forecast to be the major fuel for the 21st century. These plants are called “peaker plants” because they are easy to turn on and off to adapt to specific conditions in the service area. The turbines themselves are essentially jet engines rigged to produce power, and are very efficient, cheap to run, and produce much less pollution than other sources. The drawbacks are that they rely on natural gas markets for their supplies, and in general do not produce the huge amounts of megawatts needed to keep the grid up and running. Despite the hopes and promises of supporters, renewable fuel technologies for generation remain relatively marginal in most parts of the country. The preeminent renewable fuel remains hydropower, particularly in the West. Hydropower has the advantage of producing no pollution and is easy to manipulate when reservoirs are at ideal conditions. Its primary drawback is that it is subject to the weather, and drought conditions can cause serious troubles. Hydropower dams also usually face opposition from environmentalists, who worry about the effects they have on fish and other wildlife. Among other renewables, wind power has only recently begun to come into its own. Early wind turbines were inefficient, produced little power, and were even known for chopping up birds who strayed too close. All that has changed as more research has produced efficient turbines that can harness even mild winds, and that spin slow enough that birds don’t get in their way. Already, a number of major wind power projects have been announced in the Pacific Northwest, the Dakotas, and Pennsylvania. The drawback is that most places do not have enough wind to make turbines worthwhile, and even the windiest spots need dozens of turbines spread out over many acres to produce a sufficient amount of power. Even then, wind is too inconsistent to be relied on to provide a major portion of the grid’s power at any given time. Yet wind power is still far ahead of other renewable sources, like solar, geothermal, and biomass, which are still years away from being deployed in an commercially significant way.


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Retail These are the companies that actually sell the power to consumers. Power markets have a wholesale, or “bulk,” side and a retail side. In the first, power is measured in megawatts per hour, while the later is usually in kilowatts per hour. As you would expect, companies in a competitive market will try to buy bulk power as cheaply as possible, and sell it to individual homes and businesses for as much as they can get. More and more, retailers buy power from suppliers through “forward” contracts, which essentially guarantee they will receive x amount of power for y hours at z dollars per megawatt/hour. Contracts can be for as long as several months, or as little as a few hours. Another option are so-called “spot” markets, in which power was bought and sold for the coming hours. These markets proved to be far too dangerous though, as seen in California and other parts of the country, and are now usually used solely to shore up supplies not covered by forward contracts. On the sales end, retailers in competitive markets have to woo customers to subscribe with them. Many simply offer the lowest price possible, or offer innovative or flexible payments schemes. Some position themselves as “green” providers, promising that a set portion of their power load will come from renewable sources.

Transmission Generators and retailers, wholesale and retail markets, are connected by a vast transmission grid that is both essential for a functional market, yet one of the salient problems preventing full-blown competition from steaming ahead. Much of the grid is made up of the high-tension power lines you see running into the distance beside highways (the wires that lead to your home are technically part of the retail world; in deregulated markets, they are usually still owned by the local utility, which is required to provide “open-access” to other providers). The problem with the system is simply a matter of physics: electrons travel instantaneously, and the system requires carefully managed, redundant systems to ensure it doesn’t short-circuit itself. This requires central control, and weather trouble, over-scheduling, or any number of variable can cause major problems. For years, industry participants and government officials have argued about how to adapt this system to a competitive market. They have made some steps, most importantly through a federal regulatory order issued in the late

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1990s that mandated the grid should be managed by several “regional transmission organizations” (RTOs), who could serve as the disinterested air traffic controllers of the grid. The most controversial part of the order required utilities to cede ownership, or at least operational control, of their transmission assets to these RTOs. But exactly what form RTOs should take remains an open question. The old utilities want a separate, for-profit entity to run the grid, with the contributors of the grid staying on as co-owners. Other parties envision RTOs as non-profit agencies, or what they call “independent system operators.” So far, both models, as well as a few hybrids, are in place across the nation or are still in the planning stages.

Regulation and policy Deregulation does not mean no regulation, and there are still enough market watchers to make it a substantial part of the industry. The federal government and each state still employ a small army of analysts, lawyers, economists, accountants, and technicians to keep watch over the system. Meanwhile, companies that do business in a given state employ a number of lawyers and lobbyists to represent their interests in the ongoing battles that take place at regulatory agencies. These cases include rate cases, environmental approvals for new plants and facilities, and fielding complaints from consumers and competitors.

Types of Energy Companies Energy companies work in many ways within this framework. The foundation of the energy industry remains the “investor-owned utilities,” or IOUs. These are the big names to whom most people write a check every month – companies like ConEdison in New York, PECO in Pennsylvania, Commonwealth Edison in Chicago. They were the original players protected by PUHCA for so many decades, and remain the biggest players in the industry, with valuable structural assets, capital reserves, and skilled manpower. In competitive environments, many of these companies have set up subsidiaries to operate in other markets. Some have created “merchant” generation companies, which own power plants and sell the power in wholesale markets. Some have set up their own energy trading operations to


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trade in open markets. There are still enough rules and regulation in place that keep these operations separate and distinct, but they demonstrate how these companies remain the biggest and best able to adapt to the new energy industry. Other major players from the regulated era include public power authorities. These are quasi-governmental agencies that own power plants and power lines, and sell it to consumers. They were created to serve areas under-served by the IOUs, and are charged with serving their consumers first and foremost. They are usually funded through charges collected and government-backed bond issues. Some were formed by the federal government to market power from the massive New Deal era power projects, notably the giant hydropower dams that power the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Bonneville Power Authority in the Pacific Northwest. Others were formed by states or municipal entities, including Santee Cooper in South Carolina and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles. A similar sector are rural electric cooperatives, which are member-owned and operated systems in rural areas and usually serve agricultural communities. Public power plays a key role in the new energy industry. In the policy debates surrounding deregulation they were notable for representing their “customer first” guiding ethic, and were very aggressive in shaping the debate and speaking for consumers. In addition, they remain major employers, as they run plants and have operations similar to regular utilities. Many exist within deregulated markets and have had to adapt to competitive wholesale and retail markets. The industry is rounded out by companies that fill niches within the new framework. These include merchant generators who own plants, some with a specialty in certain types of plants. For example, Exelon owns many nuclear plants around the country. Others specialize in bringing to market renewable sources. Other companies specialize in trading, and retailers that sell directly to customers.

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The Oil and Gas Industry The price of oil sends a ripple effect throughout the world’s economy, affecting not only how much drivers have to shell out at the pump, but other forms of transportation, the cost of all goods and services, and the availability of basics like food and shelter. Nearly half of petroleum production in the U.S. goes toward gas, according to the NPRA (gasoline is a mixture of hydrocarbons for use in a spark-fueled internal combustion engine, like a car). Other products include asphalt, solvents, and even the wax used in things like chewing gum and crayons. Leading companies, ranked according to sales, are Royal Dutch/Shell, Exxon Mobil, BP, TOTAL S.A., ChevronTexaco, Petroleos de Venezuela, Petroleos Mexicanos, Eni S.p.A., Repsol YPF, S.A., and PetroChina Company Limited, according to Hoover’s.

Rockefeller’s riches The modern oil industry in the U.S. was born in the late 19th century, when, after investing in a Cleveland oil refinery during the Civil War, John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in 1870. As of 1880, Standard refined 95 percent of all oil in the U.S. Branded an illegal monopoly in 1911, Standard was divided into 34 companies, including many still around today, like Mobil, Chevron, Shell, and Esso (later renamed Exxon). As Americans took to the road, demand for oil gushed ever higher. In the 1930s, the oil giants turned to Texas to seek their fortunes. Soon thereafter, Chevron, Texaco, Exxon and Mobil went overseas to expand their reserves, buying up rights to oil fields in Saudi Arabia (a bargain at $50,000).

Oil gets organized In 1960, top oil-producing countries Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela met in Baghdad to form the intergovernmental organization OPEC, which stands for Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Today’s list of 11 members, which collectively supply about 40 percent of the world’s oil output and control more than three-fourths of total crude oil reserves in the world, are Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. The members meet twice a year to decide on their total output level of oil, considering actions to adjust it if necessary in response to oil market Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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developments. Basically, it’s all about supply and demand --if oil production rises faster than demand, prices fall, which OPEC claims hurts both producers and, eventually, consumers (in the form of inflation). Membership in OPEC is open to any oil-exporting nation that shares the organization’s ideals. OPEC countries seek to ensure that oil producers get a good rate of return on their investments and (according to OPEC) that consumers continue to be able to access steady supplies of oil.

Oil stateside Oil is certainly a slippery subject in the U.S., where high prices at the gas pump and the environmental issues associated with extraction and production always garner plenty of attention. The issue of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for instance, was a huge topic in the election of 2000, and promises to resurface in 2004. Many of these decisions rest on politics and power: While the Clinton administration had proposed selling some 6 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Florida, this amount was gutted at the behest of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2001. But at other times, true environmental concerns hold sway. For example, the last oil refinery built in the U.S. was completed in 1976; though a handful more could contribute to lower gas prices, the risks and controversy surrounding their construction (refineries need to be built near water, and disasters like the Exxon Valdez oil spill have contributed to what the industry sees as a NIMBY– “not in my back yard” – attitude among the public) have all but scuttled the possibility of any new refineries any time soon. In the U.S., according to the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association (NPRA), there are 149 refineries, owned by 57 companies, with aggregate crude oil processing capacity of 17 million barrels per day (a barrel is 42 gallons). Back in 1981, there were 325 refineries, capable of producing 18.6 million barrels per day. Total U.S. demand for oil in 2002 was 17.5 million barrels per day. OPEC puts the world demand for oil at 76 million barrels per day, predicted to rise to more than 90 million barrels per day by 2020. Meanwhile, at the end of 2001, the latest year for which OPEC figures are available, world proven crude oil reserves stood at 1.075 million barrels. Saudi Arabia dominates these holdings, with crude oil reserves of 262,697 million barrels. Iraq comes in a distant second at 112,500 million barrels; these countries are followed by Iran, the UAE and Kuwait.

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For a variety of reasons, including price and the obvious fact that U.S. demand outstrips supply, the U.S. imports a portion of its oil from other nations. In fact, according to the NPRA, while 96 percent of refined petroleum product demand is produced domestically, the U.S. imports 60 percent of the crude oil it refines from other countries.

Troubled times The 1970s saw two crises in oil pricing – an Arab oil embargo in 1973 and the outbreak of the Iranian revolution in 1979. In both cases, oil prices rose sharply. After a peak in prices in the early part of the 80s, the market saw a sharp decline followed by a collapse in 1986. By the 1990s, prices had recovered, though they never regained the high levels of the previous decade. Another collapse occurred in 1998 following economic instability in Asia – prices sank to $10 a barrel. By 2000, they had climbed back up to over $30 a barrel.

Oil alliances At the end of the 1990s, following the Asian crisis, the industry witnessed several mega-mergers among major international oil companies, including the well-known Exxon-Mobil and Chevron-Texaco marriages (British Petroleum also merged with Amoco and Arco to form BP, and Conoco joined with Phillips Petroleum to become ConocoPhillips). Many small independent companies weren’t so lucky, and went into bankruptcy. Though the industry has recovered recently as oil prices rose sky high during the Iraq war (hitting $40 a barrel in the first quarter of 2004), the industry began to see pressure as environmental concerns became more pronounced, leading producers to worry about an impending drop-off in demand. Supply may also become an issue as continued unrest in Iraq has prevented the exporting of crude oil from that country.

Russia rising With oil resources naturally limited, the industry constantly has to search for new supplies. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has been taking steps to modernize its oil infrastructure. With proven oil reserves of 60 billion barrels (mostly situated in Western Siberia), Russia also holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves. International oil services companies like Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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Halliburton and Baker Hughes have begun working with the major Russian oil companies in recent years, and the country’s economy is becoming increasingly reliant on oil exports – in 2002, energy accounted for nearly 20 percent of Russia’s GDP. In February 2003, BP invested $6.75 billion in Russia, creating a new joint venture company with Russia’s fourth-largest oil company, TNK. In August of that year, Russia approved a $13 billion merger between two of its oil superpowers, Yukos and Sibneft, creating one of the largest publicly traded oil companies in the world, but the deal was suspended a few months later due to “technical difficulties.” Analysts say the country has great potential, and could eventually produce 10 million barrels of oil per day by 2010 – President Putin has made the energy sector the centerpiece of Russia’s growth strategy in the coming decades. But this promise is dampened by an inefficient infrastructure, including government corruption and the legacy of the Soviet collapse. Russia poses a geographical challenge, as well – exports are limited by the capacity of the pipeline system intersecting the vast region. New pipeline systems, such as the Baltic Pipeline System, have been developed in recent years, and negotiations are underway for others (as well as for “reversal projects” that re-route the direction of oil pipelines to maximize transport of oil out of Russia). Similar measures are underway involving natural gas. Two megaprojects, Sakhalin I and Sakhalin II, are taking place on Sakhalin Island, located off of the east coast, site of a former penal colony. The area is rich in oil and natural gas reserves, and oil giants including Exxon and Shell are backing the projects, with oil exports anticipated for 2005 and natural gas exports expected in 2007 and 2008. Africa is another source of oil reserves. In February 2004, Exxon Mobil began a $3 billion development project off the coast of Angola, and in July 2003, crude oil production began for the first time in the nation of Chad, the result of the World Bank’s single largest investment in sub-Saharan Africa. But companies doing business in the continent are vulnerable to dramatic political unrest and violence in many countries. In March 2003, Chevron/Texaco, Royal Dutch/Shell, and TotalFinaElf shut down their operations in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria due to clashes between soldiers and militant groups in the area. Production began to resume a month later, but the region remains unstable.

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Green concerns So-called “greenhouse gases,” produced through the burning of fossil fuels, are increasingly acknowledged to be a major factor behind a trend in global warming, a trend that threatens major environmental repercussions in coming decades. The Kyoto Protocol, developed by a group of nations over the last decade to limit greenhouse gas emissions, was a hot topic as the Bush administration came into power in 2000. The administration decided not to sign on to the protocol, which would have required the U.S. to reduce its 1990 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent by the years 2008-2012. The administration’s own solutions to the global warming problem have raised the ire of many environmentalists, who see U.S. energy policy as too friendly to the interests of corporations. Meanwhile, corporations have taken their own baby steps to ease the environmental impact of their products. In January 2003, 14 U.S. oil corporations and subsidiaries launched the Chicago Climate Exchange, a trading program allowing participating members to earn redeemable credits for exceeding emissions reduction goals. Today, the U.S. oil industry spends a lot of time lobbying Congress for a “comprehensive energy policy.” According to the NPRA, such a policy would include tax incentives for new and existing refinery capacity, reasonable environmental regulations that balance the need for cleaner fuel with market demand, and a clearer policy toward individual states adopting requirements for fuel formulations (California, Connecticut, and New York, for instance, have tougher restrictions on what can go into fuel in order to reduce potentially harmful emissions – restrictions the industry says cost refineries millions). But the bottom line is that oil is a non-renewable resource, and experts warn that there is an urgent need to develop a large-scale alternative energy infrastructure. In addition to alternatives already in use, such as solar, wind, and geothermal energy systems, new technologies are in development – but it’s a race against time. According to the Alternative Energy Institute, the world’s supply of oil will reach its maximum of production, and the midpoint of its depletion, around 2010. Already, about 65 percent of known oil n the U.S. has been burned. Soon, the AEI warns, more than half of the world’s petroleum reserves will be owned and controlled by countries in the Middle


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East, a fact that highlights the problems wrought by political instability in the area.

The other gas As a power source, natural gas has become a contender in recent years. Today, a third of energy used in the U.S. is fueled by natural gas. As demand for electricity boomed in the 1990s, the market revved up, and with it came the entry of “energy merchants” like the infamous Enron, which set out to purchase natural gas cheaply, convert it into electricity, and reap profits from the “spark spread” – the markup on the sale of power. These merchants eventually manufactured a “shortage” in electricity that sent prices soaring, which in turn affected the price per cubic foot of natural gas. But the U.S. has limited domestic resources for natural gas production. As the supply is depleted, U.S. production falls by roughly 2 percent a year. Importing gas from other countries, including Russia, Qatar and Trinidad, and building pipelines in places like Alaska and Canada are touted as options, but they’re expensive and unwieldy ones. What does this mean for the oil industry? According to author Paul Roberts, a tight market for natural gas means less resources are available to devote toward new applications like synthetic gasoline, hydrogen for fuel cell-fired cars, or other energy alternatives. As a result, the oil economy doesn’t have much to fear from the green-fueled car of the future for a while.

Employment prospects The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) classifies jobs in the industry as “oil and gas extraction,” including both oil and natural gas. This category offers something for everyone: There are management and administrative jobs for white-collar types (20 percent of the industry in 2002); hardier souls might choose to work as derrick and rotary drill operators or roustabouts (11 percent). There are also plenty of opportunities for the scientifically-minded, with jobs in geology and engineering (23 percent). According to the BLS, most establishments in the industry employ fewer than 10 workers, with about 77 percent of the U.S. workforce concentrated in California, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.

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Though earnings are relatively high in the industry, BLS predicts a drop-off in overall employment in coming years, with an anticipated wage and salary decline of 28 percent by 2012 (as compared to an overall drop in all industries of 16 percent). The industry is known for its fluctuations – as prices skyrocket, companies invest in new technologies and expand their explorations, while lower prices have the opposite effect. Still, new technologies for exploration, including 3-D and 4-D seismic exploration methods, new drilling techniques, and technologies for exploring deep under the sea, will continue to produce a demand for skilled workers.

Getting Hired Energy companies are in many ways similar to other major American corporations. Most have financial structures that are recognizable to anyone with business experience, and they respond to similar cycles of supply and demand. Yet energy also features many unique quirks: it operates in a stringent regulatory environment, and it is responsible for the production and distribution of a vital service. It’s ups and downs have ripple effects across the economic spectrum, as energy costs make up a substantial portion of the bottom line of almost every business in the nation, from interstate shipping to web hosting. As you proceed in your job search, here are a few general principles that you should keep in mind – whether you are interested in power, oil, or gas.

Patience Every industry has its ups and downs, and the energy industry is no exception. Every corner of the economy has been hurt by the recent recession. But unlike the economy at large, the power sector has had to deal with the twin blows of the Enron scandal and the California crisis. Enron managed to cast many energy companies in a negative light, causing investors to steer clear, and almost wiping out their access to capital markets. Meanwhile, California put the brakes on the deregulation movement and has dampened the prospects of what had been seen as one of the great growth opportunities in business. Most power companies report that they are in the middle of serious “restructurings” after the flush years of the 1990s, preferring to wait and see how the economy recovers before investing in new ventures and hiring new Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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staff. As a result, jobs will be hard to come by for awhile. Persistence and patience are essential. You should also keep in mind that while the sector may be in rough shape, it is likely to bounce back very quickly once things begin to turn around. The infrastructure for a vibrant industry is in place, and every expert agrees that demand for the industry’s good and services will expand considerably in the coming years. It is, after all, a more than $218 billion a year industry. It is important not to loose sight of the fact that traditionally, the power sector has been one of the most stable and recession-proof industries in business. Its products and services only grow in demand, and it has a firm infrastructure in place. Many industry watchers agree that the current slump is simply a correction of roughly 10 years of uncritical exuberance and recklessness, and that long-term prospects are very good. A case in point can be found in the related oil and natural gas industries, which have survived the recession quite well. Ironically, the oil and gas sectors have even been relatively immune to recent political turmoil. For a long time, trouble in the Middle East usually resulted in supply disruptions and general uncertainty. This time around, supplies have remained stable, and rising prices have actually improved the bottom line of many oil companies. Part of this is the result of the industry’s aggressive efforts to exploit new sources.

Opportunity Throughout the 1990s the energy industry was one of remarkable evolution, and that is likely to continue despite the bad economy. Some parts of the power sector have certainly shriveled on the vine in recent years, but many predict that many of the changes have been simply put on hold, as policymakers and investors remain committed to the basic principles of greater competition. At an energy conference in February 2003, FERC Chairman Pat Wood reiterated the value of the current approach. “There should be little disagreement today on whether we should continue to rely on markets for wholesale power supply,” he said. “Markets have earned our support. Markets have performed well in wholesale power for all the same reasons they have served customers of other industries and made our economy and our nation so strong. Markets put investment risk where it belongs, with 18

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investors, not solely on the backs of captive customers. We should not loose sight of how market forces have already brought electric and natural gas customers billions in lower energy costs.” Throughout the 1990s, most power companies aggressively expanded in an effort to take better advantage of the emerging deregulated markets. Part of their push was to recruit talented business minds from completely different industries to improve their competitiveness. After all, these were issues the industry had never really had to deal with in the days of full regulation. That hiring trend has essentially dried up now, as the economy shrinks and the future of the markets remain uncertain. But many companies remain committed to diversity in principle, and the barrier to entry may be lower than you think if you present yourself the right way. Energy remains in many ways a world of its own, with its own esoteric set of quirks and manners. For many positions, there is simply no shortcut around experience in energy. This is why many companies put an emphasis on their college recruitment programs. In a tight economy, companies frequently look for specific skills to fill niches. Your best bet is to honestly assess what you have to offer, and try to plug yourself into a specific niche. Once you are on the right track, careers can be diverse and flexible; the biographies of many energy employees usually features a few surprising sidetracks and experiences. But the bottom line, across the industry, is that nothing on your resume will impress recruiters more than energy experience in some form or another.

Geography You will help your cause if you are geographically flexible. On the power side, the industry is decentralized. Consolidation has created more larger, regional entities than ever existed before, but not as many as in other industries. It is a unique aspect of the power industry that no matter where you are – whether in a big city or in rural farm country – there are a limited number operations within driving distance. Because there is no central hub for the power sector, utility operations cover the entire nation. Though some players are much larger than others, the sector is characterized by a number of smaller public power agencies and cooperatives, who often pay competitive salaries, have a smaller pool of


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applicants, and can help you get the experience you need to advance in the industry. It will help you if you are ready to relocate to the right job. Some aspects of the industry are relatively concentrated, however. The old energy trading companies – Enron, Dynegy, Reliant, and El Paso – were all famously headquartered along a single street in Houston that came to be known as “Power Alley.” They are still there, if there once world-conquering ambitions have been drastically tempered. Still, many natural gas producers and pipeline operators can be found around there, with major operations often located across Texas and Louisiana. The oil industry remains largely headquartered in Texas. But many of these companies maintain large operations in New York, near capital markets, and have extensive operations across the globe..

Keeping current It is an understatement to say the goalposts in the energy industry are changing – in fact, the sidelines, referees, teams, and the very rules of the game are changing with stunning speed. As you search for a job, you cannot afford to overlook the details, and there is no way around spending an appropriate amount of time researching and reviewing the company, market, and regulatory system you are targeting. You will need to arrive at your interview with a formidable array of information at your fingertips, as every employer needs people that have a firm understanding of just what is happening in a constantly changing market. In the power sector, you’ll have to understand the market conditions in the state. When researching companies, you need to understand what lines of business the company runs. It is not always crystal clear: some utilities have separate trading and generating operations, and you will hurt your pitch if you are applying for a division that focuses solely on one line and mistakenly assume it works in others. More importantly, regulatory rules and market conditions change month by month and even day by day. There is no way around it – you’ll need to know who the key regulatory bodies are in your region, what are the market rules, and who are the main competitors. In oil and gas, market conditions change hour by hour. While the regulatory and legal frameworks are comparatively static, you need to understand just what is happening. You need to know the current average costs of a barrel of crude. You need to understand refining capacity and should have some 20

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understanding of drilling and exploration operations. If you are applying for a major multinational company you will have to understand the geopolitical conditions in regions where the company has operations. This web of variables add up to the very underpinnings of a company’s entire operations. Doing your homework is particularly important if you have little or no experience in energy. Nothing will turn off recruiters as much as approaching energy like it is any other business. You should know your way around the specific political, economic and market issues your target companies face both to show that you have a basic grounding in their business and that you have an aptitude to learn more on the job.


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Use the Internet’s

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Vault Job Board Target your search by industry, function, and experience level, and find the job openings that you want.

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ENERG OIL/G EMPL EMPLOYER PROFILES

Alliant Energy Corporation 4902 Norht Biltmore Lane Madison, WI 53718 Phone: (800) 255-4268 www.alliantenergy.com

LOCATIONS Madison, WI (HQ) Cedar Rapids, IA (general office) Dubuque, IA (general office) Field offices located throughout service territory Alliant Energy’s international subsidiaries have operations in: Brazil • China • New Zealand

DEPARTMENTS Environmental Infrastructure security Information technology Health and safety Human resources and labor relations Project management Strategic planning

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THE STATS Employer Type: Public Stock Symbol: LNT Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman and CEO, Alliant Energy Corporation, Alliant Energy Corporate Services, Alliant Energy Resources, Interstate Power and Light, and Wisconsin Power and Light: Erroll B. Davis Jr. 2003 Employees: 8,943 2003 Revenue ($mil.): $3,128.2

KEY COMPETITORS MidAmerican Energy Wisconsin Energy Xcel Energy

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT Job Hotline: (800) 851-0658 www.alliantenergy.com/careers

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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Alliant Energy Corporation

THE SCOOP

Powering the heartland Alliant Energy Corporation is a Madison, Wis.-based holding company that provides energy products and services, as well as industrial services, such as environmental engineering and transportation. Formed in 1998 through the merger of WPL Holdings, Inc. (based in Madison, Wis.), IES Industries (based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) and Interstate Power Company (based in Dubuque, Iowa), the company currently employs some 8,900 people. It services more than 1.4 million customers in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin in a service territory that covers 54,000 square miles, with 9,700 miles of electric transmission lines and 8,000 miles of natural gas lines.

The where and how The primary subsidiaries of Alliant Energy include Interstate Power and Light Company (IP&L), Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WP&L), Alliant Energy Resources Inc. (Resources) and Alliant Energy Corporate Services Inc. (Corporate Services). The company concentrates its operations in the Midwest, although it has expanded into China, New Zealand and Australia in recent years. Overall, Alliant Energy realized 50 percent, 44 percent, 4 percent and 2 percent of its 2002 electric utility revenues in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois, respectively. IP&L, incorporated in Iowa in 1925 as Iowa Railway and Light Corporation, is engaged principally in the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electric energy; the purchase, distribution, transportation and sale of natural gas, and the provision of steam services in markets in Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois. WP&L, incorporated in Wisconsin in 1917 as Eastern Wisconsin Electric Company, is engaged principally in the generation, distribution and sale of electric energy; the purchase, distribution, transportation and sale of natural gas, and the provision of water services in markets in south and central Wisconsin.

A slight lag Alliant Energy, like many utilities in the post-September 11th, post-Enron/Arthur Andersen environment, had some problems with its bottom line in 2002. The company brought in income for the fourth quarter of $46 million, compared to $56 million for 2001. For the year, the company’s income was $121 million, compared Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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to $195 million in 2001. The decrease in earnings in 2002 compared to 2001 was primarily the result of lower earnings from the companys non-regulated businesses, which reported a net loss of $61 million in 2002, way down from a profit of $6.1 million in 2001. Although the company didn’t quite reach its 2001 income level, it did rebound quite nicely in 2003 compared to 2002. The company recorded income of $183.5 million for 2003. The losses in 2002 were due to several factors. The first was lower earnings from the company’s oil and gas business due to lower oil and gas prices, higher operating expenses, and lower gains from oil and gas properties in 2002 compared to 2001. Also, Alliant Energy’s Brazil investments lost $47 million in 2002 – largely due to losses incurred by the company’s investment in a gas-fired generating plant, which suffered the impact of a significant decline in the currency rates associated with the debt issued to finance the plant and a depressed wholesale energy market.

Righting the ship In November 2002, after the company’s earnings dropped slightly, Alliant announced plans to sell some of its non-regulated businesses, slash dividends and raise up to $300 million in equity under a plan to bolster its balance sheet. The moves allowed the company to focus on its regulated domestic utility operations and cut the company’s debt to improve its credit profile. Under the plan, the company sold its non-regulated operations, including its Whiting Petroleum oil and gas unit, the Australian Southern Hydro business, the Heartland Properties affordable housing unit and other unspecified businesses not related to its core sectors. The company also cut capital expenditures in all businesses, with the exception of domestic utilities, by about $400 million. In May 2003, Alliant closed on the sale of its Australian assets to New Zealand-based Meridian Energy Ltd. for approximately $365 million. The sale enabled Alliant to repay approximately $150 million in debt in Australia, the company said. These sales of the non-regulated businesses reduced the company’s debt by between $800 million and $1 billion, and paved the way for the stronger results of 2003. Not only did the company increase income from $121 million in 2002 to $183.5 million in 2003, it also brought sales up to $3.1 billion form $2.6 billion in 2002.

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Bye-bye Illinois Alliant announced in August 2004, that it would explore the sale of its two utilities in Illinois. Numbering at just 35,000, the company’s customer base in the Land of Lincoln is relatively small, but requires “the same attention and administrative support as a state with a larger number of customers,” Alliant President and Chief Operating Officer William Harvey told the Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News service. At the time of the announcement, Alliant hadn’t entered discussions with any potential suitors, but decided to announce its intention to sell the utilities so that customers would be aware of the plan.

More power! In December 2003, Alliant Energy announced its domestic utility supply plan to add approximately 1,600 megawatts (MW) to serve its 1.4 million domestic utility customers in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois between 2004 and 2010. Of the 1,600 MW, 985 are planned for Iowa and 615 for Wisconsin. This total includes the completion in June 2004 of the 550 MW combined-cycle Emery Generating Station near Mason City, Iowa. Generation sources included in the plan are a mix of natural gas, coal, wind and anaerobic digesters. To help fulfill this supply plan, in January 2004, Alliant Energy signed an option to purchase a site in Sheboygan Falls, Wis., on which to build a 300 MW simple-cycle, natural gas-fired peaking plant. In addition, in May 2004, Alliant Energy and WPS Resources Corporation announced that they will jointly pursue plans to build a 500 MW base-load electric plant in Wisconsin.

Alliant the plaintiff In January 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal made by Alliant Energy regarding a lower court decision that upheld a law limiting investment activities of Wisconsin utility holding companies. Alliant had challenged a Wisconsin law that caps the outside investments of utility holding companies at 25 percent of total earnings, and requires businesses that seek to own more than 5 percent of a Wisconsin utility holding company to incorporate in the state. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld most provisions of the law in 2003. Alliant Energy filed a federal lawsuit against the Public Service Commission alleging that parts of the law unfairly restrict interstate commerce, a practice that violates the U.S. Constitution.


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Alliant the defendant A securities class-action lawsuit was filed in the District of Wisconsin in May 2003 on behalf of people who acquired Alliant securities between January 29, 2002, and July 18, 2002. The suit charged that in order to make it appear that Alliant’s expensive diversification strategy was successful, the company falsely touted the performance of its non-regulated businesses and represented that the non-regulated businesses would compensate for expected 2002 weakness in its utilities businesses. The plaintiffs claim that the statements were false and misleading when made because the company knew, or was reckless in not knowing, that the unregulated businesses were suffering from serious problems, that its unregulated businesses were a material drain on the company. After looking at the evidence from both sides, a federal judge found the suit had no merit and dismissed it in August 2003.

GETTING HIRED

Hiring process Alliant maintains a list of its current job openings on its web site, www.alliantenergy.com, and allows prospective employees the option of e-mailing their resumes to the company or applying the old fashioned way – via snail mail. The company’s paid college internship program lasts for about three months during the summer. The exact start and end dates are determined by school schedules and business project needs. To submit a resume for an internship or to request more information, e-mail [email protected]. The company also posts a complete list of its college recruiting events on the careers section of its web site.

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Amerada Hess Corporation 1185 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036 Phone: (212) 997-8500 Fax: (212) 536-8593 www.hess.com

LOCATIONS

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Stock Symbol: AHC Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman and CEO: John B. Hess 2003 Employees: 11,481 2003 Revenue ($mil.): $14,311

New York, NY (HQ) Amerada Hess conducts exploration and production activities in: Algeria • Azerbaijan • Colombia • Denmark • Equatorial Guinea • Gabon • Greece • Indonesia • Malaysia • Thailand • the United Kingdom • the Unite States Amerada Hess operates refineries in: St. Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands) • New Jersey.

KEY COMPETITORS BP ConocoPhillips Exxon Mobil

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.hess.com/aboutus/careers.htm

DEPARTMENTS Exploration & Production: Geology/Geophysics Petroleum/Reservoir/Well/Facilities Engineering Refining & Marketing: Energy Marketing Hess convenience stores and retail gasoline stores Logistics and Supply/Trading Oil and Gas Trading Refinery/Terminal Operations Support Functions: Finance and Accounting Human Resources Information Services Legal Planning


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Amerada Hess Corporation

THE SCOOP

A global energy company Amerada Hess Corp. is one of the world’s largest independent energy companies. The New York-based company is engaged in oil and gas exploration and production in several countries around the globe, from Thailand to Equatorial Guinea. In the U.S., it also refines and markets petroleum products, natural gas and electricity. The company operates about 1,200 Hess gas stations, mostly in the Eastern U.S., of which approximately 67 percent are company-operated. Most of the gasoline stations are concentrated in densely populated areas, principally in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Massachusetts, and North and South Carolina, and about 850 have convenience stores. The company is the fifth-largest U.S. oil company by sales, and generates about two-thirds of its revenue from refining and marketing, with the other third coming from exploration and production.

Drilling for success Leon Hess began Hess Oil and Chemical by selling “resid” – refining leftovers – to hotels during the Great Depression. In 1969, Hess bought Amerada Petroleum, an oil exploration company. Since then, Amerada Hess has been conducting exploration activities around the world. Stung by the dramatic fluctuations of the oil crisis during the 1970s, the company faced and successfully fought off a series of hostile takeover attempts. Following the construction of a massive pipeline built to transport natural gas from the North Sea to the United Kingdom in the early 1990s, Amerada Hess looked to recover from nearly a decade of meager revenue. However, the company failed to react to the challenges of low oil prices and expensive refinery upgrades. At age 82, Leon Hess stepped down in 1995, putting his son John B. Hess in control.

A year of growth In terms of acquisition activity, 2001 was a busy year for Amerada. In February, it announced the purchase of the exploration and production assets of LLOG Exploration Company (in the Gulf of Mexico) for $750 million. In August, it bought Dallas-based Triton Energy Ltd. for $2.7 billion, which substantially boosted its exploration and production capabilities. Then in September, the company bought EEX Corp.’s 27.5 percent interest in the Llano Field in the Gulf of Mexico for $50 million. By the end of 2001, Amerada had increased production by more than 16 percent to 433,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. Despite weak energy prices, the 30

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company still managed to report net income of $945 million for the year. Although that was a slight decline from the company’s $987 million profit in 2000, it was still Amerada’s second-highest net profit ever.

Growing pains But not all of this growth worked out to the company’s benefit. Amerada has had it share of problems, one of which is debt the company racked up from its $2.7 billion acquisition of Triton Energy in 2001. The company had a loss of $218 million in 2002, including after-tax charges of $769 million for special items, compared with net income of $914 million in 2001 and $1 million in 2000. Income for the year was $551 million, versus $945 million in 2001. Refining and marketing earnings declined to $40 million in 2002 from $235 million in 2001, due to poor refining margins, a warm winter and narrow retail gasoline margins. In 2002, production averaged 451,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, the highest in the company’s history, but below its previously stated target of 475,000. Total proved reserves on a barrel of oil equivalent basis declined to 1.2 billion barrels from 1.4 billion barrels at year-end 2001.

Some bright spots Despite these disappointing numbers, in January 2003, Hess announced that it had actually posted a fourth-quarter profit versus a loss in the fourth quarter of 2002, spurred by higher oil prices and improved refining and marketing earnings. The company reported net income of $68 million, compared with a net loss of $371 million in the year-ago quarter, when the company took a write-down for a key oil field in Equatorial Guinea. Hess also announced that its sales rose 13 percent from the prior-year quarter to $3.63 billion from $3.21 billion. In January 2004, the company announced that revenue rose for 2003 a full 23 percent to $14 billion. Net income totaled $462 million, versus a loss of $245 million in 2002. The company said that the revenue gain reflected the higher average selling prices for crude oil and natural gas in 2003.

Refining Hess owns a 50 percent interest in the Hovensa refining joint venture in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In addition, it owns and operates a refining facility in Port Reading, N.J. The Hovensa refinery is a joint venture with a subsidiary of Petroleos de Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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Venezuela S.A. In 2002, Hess’ share of refinery crude runs averaged 181,000 barrels per day, compared with 202,000 barrels per day in 2001. During 2002, the 58,000barrel-per-day coking unit at the refinery became operational. The coker permits Hovensa to run lower-cost, heavy crude oil. PDVSA supplies 155,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan Mesa crude oil to Hovensa under a long-term crude oil supply contract. Hovensa has a second long-term supply contract with PDVSA to purchase 115,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan Merey heavy crude oil. The remaining crude oil is purchased mainly under contracts of one year or less from third parties and through spot purchases on the open market. After sales of refined products by Hovensa to third parties, the company purchases 50 percent of Hovensa’s remaining production at market prices. The company also owns and operates a fluid catalytic cracking facility in Port Reading. This facility processes vacuum gas oil and residual fuel oil. It operates at a rate of approximately 55,000 barrels per day and most of its production is gasoline and heating oil.

GETTING HIRED

It pays to read the paper Amerada Hess frequently looks to fill positions through advertisements in newspapers and trade journals. The company, however, does also accept resumes through its web site. Those interested in corporate positions should go to www.hess.com/about/careers.html to submit a resume via e-mail. For retail positions in any Hess location, call the 24-hour job line at 1-800-947-HESS or e-mail [email protected] for more information. The company doesn’t require that resumes be submitted for a specific opening. When the company finds a potential match in its resume pool, Amerada Hess will respond within two weeks with a request that the candidate fill out application forms; the applicant is then interviewed by the human resources office and the appropriate department manager. Positions are most frequently available in New York, New Jersey and Texas.

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American Electric Power Company, Inc. 1 Riverside Plaza Columbus, OH 43215-2372 Phone: (614) 716-1000 Fax: (614) 716-1823 www.aep.com

LOCATIONS Columbus, OH (HQ) American Electric Power distributes electricity in: Arkansas • Indiana • Kentucky • Louisiana • Michigan • Ohio • Oklahoma • Tennessee • Texas • Virginia • West Virginia AEP has natural gas pipeline interests in: Texas

DEPARTMENTS Accounting • Audit Services • Commercial Operations • Corporate Communications • Corporate Risk Management • Customer Operations • Customer Solutions Center • Distribution • Engineering • Environmental Services • Finance • Finance and Analysis • Gas Pipeline Operations • General Services • Generation • Human Resources • Information Technology • Nuclear Generation • Risk Analysis • River Operations • Supply Chain • Telecommunications • Transmission

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Stock Symbol: AEP Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman, President, and CEO: Michael G. Morris 2003 Employees: 22,075 2003 Revenue ($mil.): $14,545

KEY COMPETITORS Dominion Entergy Southern Company

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT Human Resources Department American Electric Power 1 Riverside Plaza Columbus, Ohio 43215 Fax: (614) 716-1864 www.aep.com/careers/jobsearch/ findjob.asp


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers American Electric Power Company, Inc.

THE SCOOP

A real powerhouse American Electric Power Company (AEP) is one of the largest electric utilities in the U.S., generating power for more than five million customers in 11 states. AEP owns more than 36,000 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity in the U.S. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio, and has approximately 20,000 employees.

Fired up AEP, originally known as American Gas and Electric, acquired its first utility properties in 1907, and provided gas, water and even ice service across several states. In 1911, the company connected power plants in Indiana with a 33,000-volt line across 30 miles of farmland, creating AEP’s first interconnected power system. The company’s first steam power plant began operating in 1917 in Ohio, and the plant was the first to be built a significant distance away from its load center. Through the 1920s, American Gas made several acquisitions and built three large generating stations. During a 20-year span that began in 1941, American Gas built dozens of generating operations, which gave the company millions of MW of generating capacity. In 1958, American Gas changed its name to American Electric Power. By 1975, the company’s annual revenue topped more than $1 billion, and 21 years later AEP’s electricity sales to retail customers came in at more than 100 billion kilowatt hours. The next year, AEP created AEP Energy Services, a subsidiary focused on marketing and trading energy commodities.

Delivering the juice The company also operates and owns 4,400 miles of natural gas pipelines in Texas and 118 billion cubic feet of gas storage facilities. AEP owns or leases about 7,000 railcars, 2,230 barges, 53 tugboats and two coal handling terminals with 20 million tons of annual capacity. AEP’s seven regional utilities own and operate transmission and distribution lines and other facilities used to deliver electricity to retail customers throughout AEP’s service territories.

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Power merger In June 2000, AEP merged with the Central and South West Corporation, creating a company with $35 billion in assets and combined revenues of more than $12 billion. To consolidate its domestic power-production efforts, in February 2001, the company sold its 50 percent stake in Yorkshire Power Group Ltd. of Great Britain for $383 million, and in April of that year sold affiliate mines in Ohio and West Virginia to CONSOL Energy. In June 2001, AEP bought the Houston Pipe Line Company from Enron for $726.6 million, and in October the company acquired the bankrupt Quaker Coal Co. for $101 million. In December, AEP expanded overseas again, completing the purchase of 4,000 MW of power in Britain from Edison International. In December 2001, in the wake of Enron’s collapse, AEP’s European wholesale energy marketing and trading arm, AEP Energy Services Ltd., acquired the bankrupt firm’s international coal-trading team, making AEP a worldwide leader in energy trading.

Acquisitions spark earnings Thanks to the company’s acquisitions, as well as increased wholesale-energy prices, net income for 2001 came in at $970 million, far outstripping the $267.1 million recorded for the previous year. But AEP also lowered its earnings expectations for 2002, citing the effects of the recession and the uncertainty of the timing of an economic recovery. In February 2002, AEP said it had retained Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and ABN Amro to advise the company on divesting its electric and gas subsidiary, SEEBOARD, based in southeast England. In June, AEP made a series of announcements, saying it would spend $346 million to reduce smog-causing emissions at some of its facilities in West Virginia; the company also announced plans to expand its presence in the French power market in 2002. Despite such moves, AEP was not immune to the effects of recession troubling all of the energy market. Its lowered expectations for 2002 were well justified; AEP suffered a net loss of $519 million from $971 the previous year, which translated into a share value drop to $1.57 a share from $3.01.

On the mend, sort of Spurred by its losses, AEP has set in action a plan to blacken its balance sheet. As part of a cost-reduction plan begun in early 2003, AEP has been working to lower operations and maintenance costs (up to $300 million), reduce its quarterly dividend (by 40 percent from $.60/share to $.35/share) and dispose of non-core assets. AEP’s cost-cutting measures included cutting its workforce by 1,300 positions in January. Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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The company reported that as of September 30, 2004, for the year-to-date, it had brought in revenue of $10.4 billion. This number was down somewhat from the same period the previous year, when the company had revenue of $11.2 billion. Quarterly revenue was also down slightly for the third quarter of 2004 at $3.7 billion compared to $3.9 billion in 2003. But there was some really good news: Earnings for both timeframes in 2004 were up. In fact, the third quarter earnings more than doubled from $257 million in 2003 to $530 million in 2004.

Trimming the fat AEP has divested the majority of its non-core assets except for a 50-percent interest in a natural gas-fired electric generation facility in Mexico and a 20-percent equity interest in an Australian renewable energy company. Among the assets that were divested are coal mines, gas assets in Louisiana, Texas-based generation assets, several domestic power interests, 4,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation in the United Kingdom and wholesale energy marketing and trading operations in the U.K.

An investigation In October 2003, AEP learned that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had filed a civil action against the company in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. After determining in September 2002 that five of its employees had submitted inaccurate gas trading information to trade publications, the company terminated the five employees and self-reported the incident to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the CFTC, publicly announced the employee terminations and put into place procedures to prevent a reoccurrence of the inaccurate submission of gas trading information. But that didn’t stop the federal agency from launching a legal action against the company and starting its own investigation. AEP has stated since the investigation began that it hopes to resolve the matter outside of litigation.

GETTING HIRED

Hiring process and awards AEP runs an extensive careers page on its web site, including information about internship and co-op programs and schedules for college recruiting visits. The site, www.aep.com/careers/jobsearch/findjob.asp, allows prospective applicants to search 36

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for open positions by location, job function, position type, division and educational requirements. Via the site, applicants can also submit their resumes electronically for a specific position. AEP has won several awards for its employee relations, including being one of Essence magazine’s “Great Places to Work” in 2003 and 2004, Working Mother magazine’s “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers” in 2002 and 2004, one of Computerworld magazine’s “Best Places to Work in IT” in 2002 and one of the “Top 10 Military-Friendly Employers” by GI Jobs in 2003 and 2004.


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Anadarko Petroleum Corporation 1201 Lake Robbins Dr. The Woodlands, TX 77380-1046 Phone: (832) 636-1000 Fax: (832) 636-8220 www.anadarko.com

LOCATIONS The Woodlands, TX (HQ) United States: Alaska • the Gulf of Mexico • Louisiana • the Rocky Mountain region • Texas Internationally: Algeria • Australia • Canada • Congo • Egypt • Gabon • Oman • Qatar • Tunisia • Venezuela

DEPARTMENTS Accountanting Engineering Field Personnel Geoscientists Operations Technology

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THE STATS Employer Type: Public Stock Symbol: APC Stock Exchange: NYSE President, CEO and Director: James T. Hackett 2003 Employees: 3,500 2003 Revenue ($mil.): $5,122

KEY COMPETITORS BP Burlington Resources Exxon Mobil

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT Send resume in Word format to: [email protected] or: Anadarko Petroleum Corporation Human Resources-Employment 1201 Lake Robbins Drive The Woodlands, Texas 77380

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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Anadarko Petroleum Corporation

THE SCOOP

Have drill, will travel Anadarko Petroleum Corporation is one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in the world. First incorporated in 1985, the company primarily operates in the United States. Most of its facilities are in the Texas, Louisiana, Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico regions, but the company also has interests in Canada, Algeria, Venezuela, Qatar, Oman, Egypt, Australia, Tunisia and Gabon. The company actively markets natural gas and oil, produces natural gas liquids, and owns and operates gas-gathering systems in its core producing areas. Anadarko is also involved in the hard minerals business through joint ventures and royalty arrangements in several coal, trona (natural soda ash) and industrial mineral mines. In total, the company employs about 3,400 people worldwide and is the 11thlargest publicly traded oil and gas company in the world with assets of about $18 billion.

The hard stuff As noted, while Anadarko is mainly an oil company, it also has a stake in several minerals properties, including coal, trona and industrial mineral mines. The company has coal deposits located in southern Wyoming and owns a 50 percent non-operating interest in Black Butte Coal Company, which produces approximately three million tons of coal per year. The company reinvests most of the cash flow from its hard minerals operations back into its oil and gas operations. Anadarko has a stake in a deposit of trona located in the Green River basin in southwestern Wyoming. Natural soda ash, which is produced by refining trona ore, is used primarily in the production of glass, in the paper and water treatment industries, and in the manufacturing of some chemicals. Anadarko currently owns interests in lands containing about 50 percent of these reserves and regularly leases parts of the land to companies that mine and refine trona. In addition to its investment in these trona reserves, Anadarko also owns 49 percent of the OCI Wyoming LP soda ash refining facility near Green River, Wyo.

The what and where About 54 percent of the company’s proved reserves are located onshore in the lower 48 states. During 2002, average production from Anadarko’s onshore properties was Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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1,165 million cubic feet per day of gas and 91,000 barrels per day of crude oil, accounting for about 53 percent of the company’s total production volume. Anadarko also operates in Alaska, primarily on the North Slope. But don’t think the company’s landlocked. It also goes deep-sea fishing for crude oil. In fact, at the beginning of 2003, about 8 percent of Anadarko’s reserves were located offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Not only that, Anadarko’s also developing black gold in Africa and the Middle East, and is actively developing and producing oil fields in Algeria’s Sahara Desert. Since 1989, Anadarko has participated in 99 productive wells (13 exploration and 86 delineation/development) located in 13 fields in Algeria. Eight of the fields are actively being developed and are on production. In 2002, net sales volumes from the company’s properties in Algeria brought in about 12 percent of Anadarko’s total sales volumes. Anadarko’s other international oil and gas production and development operations are located primarily in Venezuela, Qatar and Oman. The company also has a stake in two offshore producing properties in Australia and an interest in a producing property in Egypt. In addition to this, Anadarko has exploration projects in Tunisia, Qatar, Oman, Gabon, Australia, the Faroe Islands, off the coast of Georgia in the Black Sea and other areas. During 2002, production from the company’s other international properties added up to about 4 percent of its total production volumes.

Growing In 2000, Anadarko acquired Union Pacific Resources Group, giving the merged company 56 drilling rigs in operation in the United States. This deal made Anadarko the most active driller in North America and the fifth largest in terms of North American gas production and reserves. But the company wasn’t done bulking up. In 2001, Anadarko looked north in a big way, buying Canadian-based Gulfstream Resources Canada Limited for $118 million plus the assumption of approximately $10 million of debt. Gulfstream was acquired through Anadarko Canada (International) Acquisition Corporation, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. The acquisition of Gulfstream gave Anadarko additional proved reserves of approximately 70 million barrels of oil. But that wasn’t the company’s biggest deal of the year, by far. Anadarko also snatched up Canadianbased Berkley Petroleum Corp. for $777 million plus the assumption of $250 million in debt. Finally, in December 2002, the company acquired Howell Corporation for approximately $265 million, boosting its holdings in the Rocky Mountain region. In June 2003, the company acquired the majority of the Gulf of Mexico shelf properties

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owned by Amerada Hess Corporation. The 26 acquired fields have estimated proved reserves of nearly 23 million barrels of oil, of which about 60 percent is natural gas. Even amid the flurry of acquisitions, other changes were occurring at the company – but this time in the structure of its top management. In December 2003, the company named James Hackett, Ocean Energy’s former chief and Devon Energy’s president, as its new president and chief executive. Hackett replaced Robert Allison, who remained executive chairman through January 1, 2004, and then became nonexecutive chairman.

Making cuts In July 2003, the company announced that it was instituting a cost reduction plan that would eliminate more than $100 million, or 15 percent, in total overhead costs from the company’s annual cost structure. The $100 million in cost reductions includes cuts in two basic areas: personnel and corporate expenses. Approximately 400 positions were eliminated, including employees and contractors. In addition, the company will be eliminating unfilled, or open, positions. Personnel cuts represent about 50 percent of the savings. The remaining $50 million in cuts include acrossthe-board reductions in general overhead, closing offices in Midland and Amarillo, Texas, and consolidating office space at the company’s headquarters in The Woodlands, Texas. Of the 400 positions eliminated, approximately 70 percent were from departments supporting the company’s exploration and production (E&P) efforts and 30 percent were in E&P.

Curious changes There was quite a shuffling of names and faces at the top of Anadark’s management structure during 2003. It all started in March, when John Seitz abruptly resigned as CEO. The job of steering the company in the right direction was entrusted to Robert Allison, chairman of Anadarko’s board, and the man who had just vacated the CEO post 14 months prior. Allison himself had resigned from the top post, which he’d held since 1986, in late 2001. He had originally been named to the Anadarko board and chosen as president in 1976. At the time of his assuming the CEO mantle again, Allison went out of his way to make the point that the situation was only temporary, and the search for a permanent CEO was underway. The company did not elaborate beyond a brief news release on why Seitz chose to leave the company. Odder still is the fact that Seitz resigned less than a week after leading an hours-long analyst meeting in which he touted Anadarko’s growth plans for 2003. It was a meeting that

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supposedly left Wall Streeters impressed with the company’s prospects, according to various news reports. A company spokeswoman gave a brief follow-up statement to the press release, saying that the board had been disappointed with the company’s stock price for some time, and that Seitz elected to resign. At the aforementioned analyst meeting, Seitz said 2003 was going to be a “breakout year” as the company harvested the rewards of its large seismic and leasehold expenditures of 2001 and 2002. (Excluding corporate acquisitions, Anadarko spent close to $250 million on seismic in 2001 and about $175 million on leases. In 2002, lease expenditures were close to $250 million and seismic expenditures were about $150 million.)

Takeover target? Soon after Setiz’s resignation, takeover rumors began to dog the company, with almost all the major oil companies as well as large independents such as Devon Energy being mentioned as potential buyers. By October, it was said that Royal Dutch/Shell Group would buy Anadarko’s U.S. assets, and Italian oil company ENI would acquire Anadarko’s Algerian oil interests. ENI is a partner with Anadarko in Algeria, where the companies produce 530,000 barrels of oil per day. By December, these rumors had been put to rest and the company had named a new, permanent CEO: James Hackett, who had previously served as chairman, president and CEO of Houston’s Ocean Energy, which earlier in 2003 merged with Devon Energy Corp. Hackett is leaving Devon, where since the merger he had been president and chief operating officer. In a report, Irene Haas, an exploration and production analyst at Sanders Morris Harris in Houston, noted Hackett’s “solid track record” of turning around energy companies. With Hackett’s arrival, she said she expected Anadarko to “get back to the business of exploration and production with a more aggressive and profit-oriented attitude.” Upon assuming the position, Hackett immediately said that Anadarko is “absolutely not” for sale. His goal, he said, is to run the company in a way that it can be independent for a “very long time.” If opportunity arises for a deal, he said, he wants Anadarko to be the one doing the acquiring rather than being acquired.

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Deep blue sea In November 2003, Anadarko announced a deepwater discovery in the Gulf of Mexico on Green Canyon Block 518, where the company holds a 100 percent interest. The Green Canyon 518 No.1 well was “spudded” (translation: tapped) in July 2003 in about 4,000 feet of water, and was drilled to a total depth of more than 26,700 feet. It is currently the deepest offshore well drilled in Anadarko’s history. The company plans to immediately drill another well on Green Canyon Block 518 to further exploit the field. The successful deepwater subsalt exploratory well, located about 150 miles south of New Orleans and just north of the famous K2 field, is expected to come on-line sometime during 2005. Anadarko and its partners have drilled three successful wells in the K2 field on the southern adjacent block, Green Canyon Block 562. Anadarko holds a 52.5 percent working interest in that project. Then, in January 2004, Anadarko announced that the Marco Polo platform, the deepest tension leg platform (TLP) in the world, had been successfully installed in 4,300 feet of water about 160 miles south of New Orleans. The 196-foot hull traveled 13,000 miles from South Korea to Anadarko’s Marco Polo discovery on Green Canyon Block 608, where it has been connected to its 6,725-ton topsides. Oil and gas production is expected to begin in July 2004. Production capacity is 120,000 barrels of oil per day and 300 million cubic feet of gas per day. Anadarko currently has access to 536 blocks in the Gulf of Mexico; 288 of those are in deepwater.

Good numbers Anadarko Petroleum said that its third-quarter 2003 net income was up 45 percent amid higher oil and gas prices. The company reported a third-quarter profit of $274 million, compared with a profit of $189 million, in the third quarter 2002. Revenue was $1.3 billion, up from $938 million. Sales volume totaled 50 million oil barrels, up 4 percent over the same quarter a year-ago, the company said. In the quarter, oil production was 189,000 barrels a day, down slightly from 191,000 barrels in the same period last year. For the last full year reported – 2002 – the company had a record-high net income of $825 million, and revenues of $3.8 billion, while recording its 21st consecutive year of more than replacing annual production with new reserves.


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GETTING HIRED

Hiring overview Anadarko doesn’t really provide much information about open position or what life at the company is like on its website, www.anadarko.com, but they do provide a mailing address: Anadarko Petroleum Corporation Human Resources-Employment 1201 Lake Robbins Drive The Woodlands, Texas 77380 where interested parties can send their resume, as well as an email address, [email protected] where you can email your resume. Resumes are only accepted as Word attachments, the company advises.

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Baker Hughes Incorporated 3900 Essex Ln., Ste. 1200 Houston, TX 77027-5177 Phone: (713) 439-8600 Fax: (713) 439-8699 Toll Free: (888) 408-4244 www.bakerhughes.com

LOCATIONS

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Stock Symbol: BHI Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman and CEO: Chad C. Deaton 2003 Employees: 26,650 2003 Revenue ($mil.): $5,292.8

Houston, TX (HQ)

TOP COMPETITORS

Baker Hughes operates about 40 manufacturing plants worldwide, most of which are in the U.S. in: Louisiana • Oklahoma • Texas

Halliburton Schlumberger

DEPARTMENTS

www.bakerhughes.com/careers/index.htm

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT

Accounting & Finance Administrative / Other Engineering Field Operations HSE Opportunities Human Resources Information Technology Manufacturing/Technology Quality Research & Development Sales & Marketing


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Baker Hughes Incorporated

THE SCOOP

Skilled with the drill Houston-based Baker Hughes Incorporated is engaged in the oilfield services business. The company is a global supplier of well-bore related products and technology services and systems to the oil and gas industry. Its products and services are used for drilling, formation evaluation, completion (installation of equipment in a well after it’s been drilled) and production of oil and gas wells. For 2002, the company posted sales of $4.9 billion, down slightly from $5.0 billion in 2001. But the company rebounded well in 2003.

The beginning In 1907, Reuben C. Baker developed a casing shoe that revolutionized the cable tool drilling process. Just two years later, in 1909, Howard R. Hughes Sr. introduced the first roller cutter bit that improved the rotary drilling process. Over the next 80 years, Baker International and Hughes Tool Company became worldwide leaders in well completions, drilling tools and related services. The two companies merged in 1987 to form Baker Hughes Incorporated, which currently has operations in over 80 countries, operates more than 40 manufacturing plants and employs around 26,700 people.

Pieces of the puzzle The oilfield segment of Baker Hughes consists of seven operating divisions: Baker Atlas, Baker Hughes Drilling Fluids, Baker Oil Tools, Baker Petrolite, Centrilift, Hughes Christensen and INTEQ. Baker Atlas, provides a range of downhole well logging technology and services, including advanced formation evaluation, production and reservoir engineering, seismic and geophysical data acquisition services. The Baker Oil Tools division provides downhole completion and fishing equipment and services. Baker Oil Tools also manufactures and sells liner hanger systems, which companies use to suspend and set strings of casing pipe in wells. The division also offers sand control equipment and services that prevent sand from reducing productivity. The Baker Petrolite division provides chemicals to the oil and gas industries, as well as companies working in refining, pipeline operation and maintenance, petrochemical, agriculture and iron and steel manufacturing.

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The Centrilift division offers oilfield electric submersible pumping systems. Centrilift also manufactures and markets cavity pump systems for use in lowervolume, sandier and/or more viscous applications. The company’s INTEQ division provides drilling and evaluation services to the oil and gas industry. These services include various drilling capabilities, such as directional drilling, logging-whiledrilling and measurement-while-drilling. Baker Hughes Drilling Fluids produces and markets drilling and completion fluids and specialty chemicals. Through the Hughes Christensen division, the company manufactures and markets of roller cone drill bits and fixed diamond cutter drill bits for the worldwide oil, gas, mining and geothermal industries. The company’s “Tricone” bits are designed to drill a wide range of formations and applications in a wide range of sizes. Fixed diamond cutter bits include polycrystalline diamond compact bits, natural diamond bits and impregnated diamond bits.

Growth through acquisitions... In 2002, Baker Hughes formed the Pipeline Management Group (PMG), an internal organization, to provide integrated pipeline management services. These integrated services include hazard and integrity assessment, improvement of pipeline capacity and pipeline cleaning. In May 2003, the company acquired Cornerstone Pipeline Inspection Group, a provider of inspection services to assess the integrity of pipelines. In December 2002, in the first of a two-part transaction, the company acquired some assets and intellectual property from the borehole seismic data acquisition business of Compagnie Generale de Geophysique (CGG). The second step in the transaction was completed in February 2003, with the completion of contracts and the formation of a joint venture that will handle the processing and interpretation of borehole seismic data. Baker Hughes holds a 51 percent interest in the venture.

...and divestures In November 2002, the company sold its EIMCO Process Equipment unit to Groupe Laperriere & Verreault, Inc. of Montreal, Canada, for $48.9 million. In December 2002, the company began negotiating the sale of its interest in its oil producing operations in West Africa and received $10 million as a deposit; the company closed the deal, receiving the remaining $22 million of the sale price in 2003. These sales were part of the company’s plan to exit from non-oilfield related ventures.


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Some troubles Baker Hughes completed the sale of its Bird Machine division to Andritz AG in January 2004, but warned that the deal would lead to additional charges. In October 2003, the company signed a definitive agreement for the sale of the division to Austria’s Andritz Group and recorded charges totaling $35.5 million. Bird Machine specializes in the solid-liquid separation of sludges from waste water treatment plants and other suspensions. The company took charges totaling between $4 million to $6 million during the fourth quarter of 2003 and the first quarter of 2004. In addition to this, in September 2003, WesternGeco, the world’s largest seismic company, which was formed in a joint venture in June 2000 between Schlumberger’s Geco-Prakla and Baker Hughes’ Western Geophysical, continued to struggle. During the third quarter of 2003, Schlumberger took an after-tax charge of $205 million and Baker Hughes an after-tax charge of $151.2 million on WesternGeco, the companies reported. Of the $151.2 million in charges Baker Hughes took on WesternGeco, $105.9 million was for the multi-client seismic library and $45.3 million for the overall carrying value of the joint venture. Including charges, Baker Hughes weighed in with a 2003 third-quarter net loss of $98.8 million, compared to net income of $81.6 million in the prior quarter and $64.7 million in the year-ago third quarter. In forming WesternGeco, Schlumberger gave Baker Hughes $500 million in cash for a 70 percent share of the joint venture. Baker Hughes used the cash to pay down debt. The deal also freed up about $100 million a year in working capital for Baker Hughes and allowed the company to focus on its remaining business units. Western Geophysical, Baker Hughes’ contribution to the joint venture, had been a thorn in the side of Baker Hughes since the company had acquired parent Western Atlas in a $4.5 billion stock swap two years earlier. In the fourth quarter of 1999, Baker Hughes took a $130 million restructuring charge on Western Geophysical, which at the time had fallen victim to a price downturn in the industry.

GETTING HIRED

Hiring process Applicants can search a database of open positions on the company’s web site at www.bakerhughes.com/careers. The job database is searchable by job title, location and keyword. Applicants can also submit their resumes to a general company 48

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BP p.l.c. 1 St James’s Square London SW1Y 4PD United Kingdom Phone: +44 (0)20 7496 4000 Fax: +44 (0)20 7496 4630 www.bp.com

LOCATIONS London, United Kingdom (HQ) Warrenville, IL (North American HQ) Houston, Texas (Exploration HQ)

DEPARTMENTS Accounting / Finance • Administration / Support • Analytical / Laboratory • Assurance / Ethics • Aviation Operations • Commercial / Control / Business • Control Technician • Credit • Customer Service • Diversity and Inclusion • Drafting / Design • Drivers • Engineering • External Affairs / Communications • Geology / Geophysics • Health, Safety and Environment • Human Resources • Information Technology • Instrument and Electronics • Legal • Licensing • Logistics / Distribution / Supply Maintenance • Management • Mariners • Materials • Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestments • Negotiations • Operations • Pensions • Planning / Strategy • Production • Property / Office Services • Radio Operator • Regional Directorate / Associate • Research and Technology • Retail Sales / Marketing • Security • Shipping Operations • Surveyor • Trading and Supply • Training and Organizational Development

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: BP PLC Stock Exchange: NYSE CEO: Lord John Browne 2003 Employees: 103,700 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $232,571

KEY COMPETITORS ChevronTexaco Exxon Mobil Royal Dutch/Shell Group

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.bp.com/careers/us


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers BP p.l.c.

THE SCOOP

A global energy company BP (formerly BP Amoco) is the world’s second-largest integrated oil company, with operations in 100 countries on six continents. The London-based concern is involved in the exploration and production, refining and marketing of crude oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and solar energy. BP expanded greatly following the acquisitions of Amoco in 1998 and Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) in 2000. The largest U.S. oil and gas producer and a leading oil refiner, BP also operates 27,800 gas stations around the world. BP got its start in 1901, when Englishman William Knox D’Arcy won permission to explore for oil in Persia (now Iran). D’Arcy made the first commercial oil discovery in the Middle East in 1908. By the 1920s, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (as BP was then called) had expanded its exploration operations to Canada, South America, Africa, Papua New Guinea and Europe. After WWII, the company (which was then called Anglo-Iranian Oil Company) diversified into petrochemicals. The company’s operations in Iran were brought to a halt in 1951 after the Iranian government nationalized the company’s assets. Operations resumed in 1954 under a consortium of oil companies. Forty percent of the consortium was owned by Anglo-Iranian, which changed its name to the British Petroleum Company (BP). In 1987, BP bought out the remaining 45 percent of Standard Oil that it did not already own and launched a successful bid for Britoil, a UK-based oil exploration and production company.

Growth spurts BP nearly tripled its size in the late 1990s, following several major acquisitions. The first was in 1998, when BP bought Chicago-based Amoco for $57.6 billion. Amoco had started out in 1889 as the refining arm of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust and became independent in 1911 when the trust was broken up by the Supreme Court. While its first 20 years were solely dedicated to refining, Amoco soon became a fully integrated oil company. When it merged with BP, the two companies became the third-largest oil company in the world. The combined company, which was called BP Amoco, expanded again in 2000 when it acquired the Los Angeles-based Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) for $26.8 billion. The deal gave BP entry into key West Coast retail markets in the United States. (At the time of the deal, ARCO had more than 1,700 gas stations in the western half of North America.) ARCO’s oil holdings in Alaska, however, had to be sold in order for regulators to approve the deal. BP 50

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continued its buying frenzy later in 2000 by purchasing U.K.-based lubricants company Burmah Castrol for almost $5 billion. The deal turned BP into the world’s third-largest player in the lubricants field.

Looking to the east BP has operated in the oil-rich fields of Russa since 1990, and in 2003, analysts cited BP’s investments in the former Soviet Union as a major reason to be optimistic about the company’s economic outlook. By mid-2004, the company’s oil and gas exploration interests in Russia included a 25 percent shareholding in Sidanco, a Russian oil company, a 33 percent stake in RUSIA Petroleum, a 49 percent prebidding agreement with Rosneft and SMNG in the Far East of Russia and a 46 percent ownership in LUKARCO. The company’s oil and crude oil interests include a 75 percent share in PetrolComplex, a fuel and retail business with 38 sites in Moscow, an 80 percent share in a marine lubricants joint venture with LUKoil based in St. Petersburg and its International Supply and Trading group (IST) is the largest non-pipeline lifter of Russian crude oil. In July 2003, BP closed a deal to combine the company’s Russian assets with the Tyumen Oil Co. under the new name TNK-BP, in a $6.1 billion deal. The combination, which was announced in February 2003, created Russia’s third-largest oil producer. While some skeptics conjured up scenarios of the Wild West to describe the prospect of enforcing Western standards in a post-Soviet oil industry, other observers point out that TNK-BP has proven reserves of over 9 billion barrels in oil equivalent (or 5.2 billion, by BP’s more conservative estimate). Adding to this, in October 2003, the OAO Russia Petroleum Corporation, another Russian venture spearheaded by BP, inked a deal to build a $17 billion natural gas pipeline that links Siberian fields with China and South Korea, but in March 2004, Russia said that it may delay construction of the pipeline by four years because of concern that there isn’t enough demand for the fuel.

Environmentally speaking As part of its “Clean Cities” initiative, BP began introducing cleaner fuels in 1999 to lower emissions and improve air quality in some of the most polluted cities around the world. By the end of 2003, BP was selling cleaner fuels in 113 cities worldwide and 40 in the U.S. For the year, those cleaner fuels removed the equivalent of 100,000 cars’ emissions every day. One area where BP is concentrating its clean fuel efforts is in smoggy southern California. BP phased out the use of MTBE (methyl


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tertiary butyl ether), an additive used to boost octane levels in gasoline, in the area by the end of 2002. This was well ahead of a statewide ban on MTBE that took effect in January 2004. One notable dark spot in BP’s environmental safety profile came in 2003 in the form of disturbing allegations around an oil well explosion in Alaska. Since 2000, when BP pleaded guilty to one felony count of failing to properly report hazardous waste disposal in the Alaskan environment, the company has been on a five-year federal probation period. Claiming full compliance, BP sought an early end to its probation in July 2003. But workers at BP are accusing the company of violating state regulations and attempting to hide evidence. When BP produced oil well A22, workers charge, it was an infringement of regulations set by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Committee (AOGCC), which oversees BP’s management of Prodhoe Bay, the biggest oilfield in North America. The oil well exploded on August 16, 2002, severely injuring the operator and causing a spill that resulted in a massive fire.

BP: Beyond petroleum BP has a solid history of exploring applications of solar energy. BP solar panels fueled housing and lighting towers in Sydney, Australia, during the 2000 Olympics; powered equipment for the Inventa Everest 2000 Environmental Expedition; and generated electricity for the first time in 4,000 homes in northern India. The BP unit Solarex is the biggest producer of solar panels worldwide, and the company is working with various auto manufacturers to develop a fuel cell car that runs on hydrogen. But perhaps the most significant efforts to draw on solar energy are the approximately 24,000 newly built or converted BP service stations that make use of solar panels in nine countries around the world. BP began opening BP Connect stores worldwide in 2000. Billed as “gas stations of the future,” the stores feature high tech gas pumps that provide weather, news and traffic information while customers pump their gas. Solar powered canopies shield customers from the elements while providing power for about 10 to 15 percent of the site’s energy needs. Inside, BP Connect stores offer an upgraded convenience store, the Wild Bean Cafe and Internet kiosks. The company hopes the redesigned fuel centers will push sales of non-fuel products to 50 percent or more (they were at roughly 20 percent in 2000, and 33 percent in 2001). By the end of 2001, 339 BP Connect stores were up and running. Many more opened in 2002, including a flagship location in downtown Chicago. In 2003, however, as retail gasoline margins began to lose their comfortable doubledigit return status and dip into the shaky single digits, BP shifted some of its focus

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away from operating its own retail outlets. In the vein of other major oil companies, BP is expected to turn over 70 percent of its product volume to petroleum marketers that run multi-site gasoline and convenience stores. The cancellation of a multimillion-dollar plan to build new BP Connect centers in Baltimore is typical: The company is concentrating instead on converting and re-branding old Amoco stations with its BP logo. In July 2004, the company spun off part of its petrochemicals unit into a separate business. BP has already announced plans to take the new company public sometime in 2005. The company also intends to sell off other businesses, including its fabrics and fibres and its linear and poly alpha olefins units.

GETTING HIRED

Online applications BP accepts resumes submitted through the company’s job web site, located at www.bp.com/career/us. Applicants should create an online profile at the web site, which posts detailed information for different career tracks at the company. Links are also available for jobseekers in specific regions, including the U.S.; BP states a preference for hiring students in their home countries. Students and recent graduates should submit resumes for specific positions at the web site, which will be entered in a central database and kept active for a year. For applicants who have been in the workforce for three years or more, the web site offers a link called “Experienced Hires.” Employees can look forward to comprehensive health care coverage, various stock options and retirement benefits, and, in certain locations, a compressed work week with flexible hours or telecommuting as an option. Citing a strong commitment to its employees, BP provides mentorship and training programs for new hires and promotes regularly from within the ranks.

The way in MBAs can start in corporate finance, offering support during the life cycle of an oil field, or in such divisions as gas and power; petroleum products; chemicals; and exploration and production. At BP, MBAs typically hold an array of titles, such as “financial analyst” in the corporate area or “economic/commercial analyst” in the other business units. MBAs typically work at BP’s offices in Chicago, Houston (home to the company’s Western Hemisphere Exploration and Production Visit the Vault Consulting Career Channel at consulting.vault.com – with insider firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Consulting Job Board and more.

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headquarters) or other BP regional centers. Many MBAs land international jobs on a second or third assignment. Each year, the BP Global MBA Programme accepts up to 10 outstanding MBA students for a two – month summer internship, with potential to receive a two – year Helios Fellowship afterward. Requirements include at least five years’ full – time work experience before entering an MBA program; evidence of international experience; fluency in more than one language; and active enrollment in an MBA program, especially those at select international business schools, such as the University of Chicago, Stanford, London, INSEAD and Tsinghua. The internships, which generally start in mid – June, are assigned to one of BP’s international offices and focus on research, analysis and strategy. The deadline for application is usually early January of the internship year, although students at INSEAD or Tsinghua have a later closing date. The Helios Fellowships require completion of an internship and start after graduation from an MBA program.

The interview questions BP recruits extensively on college campuses and by referrals. The company uses what it describes as a “motivation-based” interview process. “What we do is to ask questions that relate to things you have actually experienced,” says one insider. “From that experience we ask probing questions to determine what motivates you, what you like and don’t like, etc. When it was done to me, I had no idea what they were up to and couldn’t figure out why they offered me a job when all we talked about was my job in a lumber yard. It is felt that we can learn a lot more about you and what you are searching for from your platform of experience than if we ask you, ‘Why do you want to become a geoscientist and work for BP?' which most students have no idea based on experience and give pretty meaningless answers.” Another employee describes the interviews as “bi – directional,” meaning “the candidate must determine also whether they really want to work for the organization based on what they see in the interview team. The candidate obtains a better [idea] of what a company is like by speaking to several interviewers as they will all give a different slant of their own experience with that particular prospective employer.”

No technical questions “Don’t waste your time preparing for technical questions because you won’t get any. It is generally accepted that if you have graduated from geosciences at any of the targeted campuses with a reasonable GPA,” says an employee, “we don’t need to ask 54

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a bunch of technical questions since again you got through the course to have the basics, and have little industry experience. Interviews are generally looking for potential.”

OUR SURVEY SAYS

Say goodbye to the jungle Despite the economic situation and the sometimes-fierce competition between fuel companies, insiders say that BP is a “relaxed working environment” in which both management and employees are “open and approachable.” While the environment is different in each department, most are “friendly places where co-workers enjoy battling red tape together. Colleagues treat each other like teammates.” One respondent claims “Individuals are encouraged to work as teams to solve issues.” Says one employee, “Certainly with the challenging oil prices, we have had a lot more competitive pressure in our environment over the past five years ago or so, but my sense is we are still far more humane than the ‘outside world.’”

Diversity: a two-way street As for diversity, there appears to be no shortage of that. One insider from Scotland says that BP is “very diverse and prides its self in the diversity.” Says one employee, “Diversity is a two-way street, remember that the headquarters of [BP] is in London, England. You must be prepared to work for a non-first-language English person who is not an American citizen and possibly never lived in the U.S. before their current assignment.” This situation fosters individual growth with “group exercises” and good training [programs],” as well as “opportunities to travel,” according to one insider who goes on to say BP is the “best place to work.”


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ChevronTexaco Corp. 6001 Bollinger Canyon Road San Ramon, CA 94583 Phone: (925) 842-1000 Fax: (925) 842-3530 www.chevrontexaco.com

LOCATIONS San Ramon, CA (HQ) San Francisco, CA

DEPARTMENTS Accounting Administration/Clerical Electrical Engineering/Environmental Engineering/Mine Engineering Environmental Science Financial Analytical Services Government Sales HR Logistics (Trucking) Management Materials Medical Operators Petrophysicist Procurement Product Delivery Production Public Relations Retail Technical

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THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: CVX Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman & CEO: David J. O’Reilly 2003 Employees: 50,582 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $112,973

KEY COMPETITORS BP Exxon Mobil Royal Dutch/Shell Group

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT Mr. Gregory Matiuk ChevronTexaco Corporation P.O. Box 7318 San Francisco, CA 94120 Phone: (888) 825-5247 Fax: (888) 329-8647 E-mail: [email protected]

© 2005 Vault Inc.

Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers ChevronTexaco Corp.

THE SCOOP

A marriage made in oil heaven Big oil keeps on growing. When the merger of Chevron and Texaco was finalized in October 2001, the combined company became the fourth largest oil producer in the world, behind only ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, and British Petroleum (BP). The new energy giant owns 12 billion barrels of oil in proven reserves, 23 refineries and 24,000 retail outlets. Besides petroleum, the company also manufactures and sells chemicals and plastics through its Chevron Phillips Chemical affiliate and owns an interest in the energy-trading company, Dynegy.

In the beginning... The predecessor of the modern-day Chevron Corporation started out as the Pacific Coast Oil Company. Founded in 1879 (making 2004 the company’s 125th anniversary), after the discovery of oil in Pico Canyon, Calif., the company soon became part of the Standard Oil empire. When Standard Oil was broken up by antitrust regulators in 1911, the newly independent company took on the name of Standard Oil of California (Socal). Socal began using the distinctive red, white and blue Chevron logo in 1931, and it started selling its gasoline under the Chevron brand name in 1945. In 1984, Socal acquired the Gulf Corporation for $13.3 billion, the largest corporate merger in history at that time. It was at this time that the newly combined company officially changed its name to the Chevron Corporation. Texaco was founded by Joseph Cullinan and Arnold Schlaet in Beaumont, Texas, in 1901. Known originally as the Texas Fuel Company, and later simply as The Texas Company, it began marketing its products under the Texaco brand in 1911. In 1959, the corporation’s name was officially changed to Texaco Inc. Texaco merged with the Getty Oil Company in 1984, establishing the new corporation as a major player in the oil industry.

The breakdown ChevronTexaco’s petroleum business is divided into two units. Upstream operations consist of the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. Active in 180 countries, as of early 2004, ChevronTexaco was extracting more than 2.5 million barrels of oil and natural gas every day. In North America, the company has facilities in California, Texas, Canada and the Gulf of Mexico. Overseas, ChevronTexaco Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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operates production facilities in dozens of countries, with major operations in Angola, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia. The refining, transportation, and marketing of finished petroleum products is termed downstream operations in industry jargon. Here, too, ChevronTexaco’s reach is global. The company owns, either in full or as part of a joint venture, 23 refineries in various countries around the world including the Netherlands, South Africa, Britain, the Philippines and South Korea. It operates a transportation infrastructure that consists of a fleet of 31 tanker ships and more than 9,000 miles of pipelines. At the retail level, ChevronTexaco’s vast network of affiliate service stations sells the company’s products under the Chevron, Texaco, and Caltex brands. In addition to gasoline, ChevronTexaco is the No.-1 marketer of jet fuel and sells a range of consumer lubrication and cooling products, including Havoline motor oil.

Chemical world The Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, a joint venture between ChevronTexaco and ConocoPhillips, operates 32 manufacturing facilities and six research labs in eight countries. Their newest chemical plant, located in Qatar, opened in January 2003. The company produces various commodity petrochemicals that are used in the production of consumer and industrial chemicals and plastics. The Chevron Oronite Company, wholly owned by ChevronTexaco, produces more than 500 products, primarily additives for engine lubrication oils.

Merger mania Even prior to their merger, the Chevron and Texaco companies were no strangers to each other. Caltex, now a wholly owned subsidiary of the combined company, began in 1936 as a joint venture between the two to sell gasoline in Asia and Africa. Under former Chevron CEO Kenneth Derr, the topic of merging the companies had been discussed as far back as 1999. Texaco’s board, however, initially rebuffed the proposal citing concerns over the complexity and risk of the plan. Current CEO Dave O’Reilly, who succeeded Derr in January of 2000, continued to pursue the idea, and an agreement was finally reached in October of that year. After receiving approval from government regulators, the merger was completed one year later. In exchange for Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approval, Texaco was forced to sell off its stake in two of its affiliated refineries, Equilon and Motiva Enterprises. The oil industry as a whole has seen a widespread trend toward conglomeration in recent years. As the number of locations unexplored for possible resource extraction

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in North America dwindles, the cost of finding and establishing new production sites has increased dramatically. Conglomeration is one way to offset some of these costs, and industry analysts increasingly view it as necessary to a company’s survival. In fact, in the wake of the Texaco deal, some speculated that O’Reilly might look to get even bigger by acquiring a mid-level company such as Conoco, Burlington Resources or Marathon Oil.

Moving on In August 2004, the company announced that it had sold certain properties in seven states (concentrated in Texas and New Mexico) to XTO Energy Inc. for $912 million, of which $110 million had already been paid as a deposit in May 2004. ChevronTexaco’s engineers estimate that the properties involved in the deal to have reserves of about 732 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe) of natural gas (yielding daily production of about 88 million cubic feet of natural gas) and oil reserves that will produce 14,000 barrels a day. A few months prior to this, in May, ChevronTexaco exited Western Canada’s oil and gas industry by selling non-core assets to Enerplus Resources Fund and Acclaim Energy Trust for $800 million. The two companies banded together to buy ChevronTexaco’s 13 producing oil and gas fields in the region. ChevronTexaco’s sale follows a trend set over the past year where larger international companies sell their more mature producing lands in Western Canada in order to focus on large new projects or internationally. Just a week prior to this deal, Chevron Canada also sold EnerPro Midstream Co. – which owns several natural gas and oil facilities throughout Alberta and a natural gas liquids fractionation plant at Fort Saskatchewan – to KeySpan Facilities Income Fund for about $190 million.

The O’Reilly factor Dave O’Reilly has spent his entire career with the Chevron Corporation. Born in Ireland, O’Reilly began his career as a process engineer with Chevron Research following his graduation from University College in Dublin. He worked his way through the ranks of the company’s management, reaching the vice president level in 1991 and serving for a brief period as director of Caltex. In 1994, O’Reilly became president of Chevron Products and oversaw all of the company’s refining and marketing activities. He was elected vice-chairman of the board in 1998 and became CEO on January 1, 2000, after Kenneth Derr stepped down. Following the merger, O’Reilly retained his leadership position, becoming CEO of the new ChevronTexaco.


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Synergy sapped by Dynegy The post-merger honeymoon didn’t last long, however, as the promised savings due to “synergies” between the two companies were slow to materialize. At the time the merger was announced in October 2001, the company’s stock was trading at about $90/share. Since then, its fortunes turned south, dropping as far as $61, but thanks to high oil prices in 2004, by August, the stock price was again hovering in the low to mid-$90s. Much of the initial drop was attributed to ChevronTexaco’s substantial investment in the troubled energy-trading company, Dynegy. Plagued by low energy prices, massive debt and lingering concerns about possible accounting misconduct, many observers judged Dynegy to be a lost cause. Yet O’Reilly refused to give up on the company, and ChevronTexaco continued to channel money into Dynegy for many months. The company finally wrote off the majority of its investment in November of 2002. ChevronTexaco’s bottom line has been healthy, however, as its full-year 2003 revenue hit a record $122 million, up from $99 million in 2002. The trend continued right though 2004, as in July, the company announced that its second-quarter profit more than doubled as high energy prices extended a recent roll that is shaping into the most prosperous stretch in the oil giant’s 125-year history. The company earned $4.13 billion for the three months ended in June compared with $1.6 billion a year earlier. It represented the largest three-month profit that the company has recorded since its formation in 1879.

Big plans ChevronTexaco proposed an ambitious $6 billion project to upgrade extra heavy oil from Venezuela’s eastern Orinoco Faja region into lighter, exportable synthetic crude in August 2004. The project entails increased exploration and production, a new pipeline and increasing production of high-quality synthetic crude and products to 200,000 to 400,000 barrels per day. The company has already is partnered with state oil company PDVSA in one extra heavy oil project, Hamaca, which is scheduled to complete construction on a 190,000-bpd synthetic crude unit in the fourth quarter of 2004. Venezuela, a member of OPEC, is seeking higher production from foreign companies to help it boost output to five million barrels per day by 2009.

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GETTING HIRED

The way in Headquartered in San Ramon, Calif., ChevronTexaco has operations in 180 countries. Jobs are divided into the following career areas: accounting, earth science, engineering, finance, human resources, information technology, marketing, operations, research and retail sales. More information on the company’s worldwide locations and various career tracks can be found on the company’s web site. All U.S.based open positions are listed on the online database. For international positions, ChevronTexaco encourages applicants to look for advertisements in local newspapers.

Recruiting For college students, ChevronTexaco makes recruiting visits to many campuses throughout the year including Cornell, Rice, Northwestern, UCLA, and Michigan. In addition, ChevronTexaco recruits at the career fairs of many professional organizations such as the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, National Black MBA Association, and the Society of Women Engineers. An up-to-date calendar of upcoming recruiting visits is available at the ChevronTexaco website. The company also offers internships in engineering, finance, human resources, earth science and information technology. Internships are mainly offered in the summer, though there are some six-month positions available during the academic year as well. All interns are “evaluated for potential future employment.” Corporate positions are based either in San Ramon, Calif., or Houston, Texas. Engineering, earth science or IT positions are available in various locations across the U.S. ChevronTexaco has a specialized program for MBA development that accepts both current MBA students for summer positions and recent MBA grads for a full-time training program.

OUR SURVEY SAYS

Positive reviews At its corporate headquarters located in lovely San Francisco, ChevronTexaco gets mostly positive reviews from its employees. “Chevron is a fantastic place to work” with “friendly” and “team-oriented” people, employees say. An insider says: Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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“Management is always willing to listen to the employees and most of the time make changes based on our input.” Says another: “I would describe the culture as open and friendly.” And those that work at Chevron’s corporate headquarters in San Francisco love the city. “San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and I have seen many of them,” says one. If you end up working for Chevron, be ready to travel to the far reaches of the world. One longtime employee describes traveling to “Angola, Nigeria, Congo, Australia, Kazakhstan, Russia, England, Papua New Guinea, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and China.”

Employee-friendly policies Employees at ChevronTexaco rave about the pay, benefits, and flexible hours. “Something about Chevron, pay is very good,” a source says. Another source adds: “Your best bet is overseas if you want to make good money.” Employees laud the savings plan, where the company “puts as much as $3 to our $1 in the 401(k).” Employees are also ecstatic about the company stock plan, where Chevron gives employees stock in equivalent of 2 percent of their base pay. “The stock plan is an absolute blessing,” one employee says, echoed by others. Workers are allowed to enter in 9-80 plans, where they work 80 hours over 9 days, and take every other Friday off. Another insider mentions that the company offers “alternate work schedules, educational refund, and part-time work schedules,” but that “policies differ greatly among the various departments.” The dress code “varies by location,” with operations in the South “more conservative” and California “quite liberal and loose.” A longtime employee says: “When I hired on it was dark suits and hats. Now it’s casual dress and encouragement of some non-conformity.” At IT headquarters in San Ramon, says one insider, “dress code is casual – no ties for men, and women can wear pants and shirts instead of dresses if they want.” In the company’s San Francisco headquarters however, it’s still “business dress.”

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ConocoPhillips 600 N. Dairy Ashford Houston, TX 77079 Phone: (281) 293-1000 Fax: (281) 293-1440 www.conocophillips.com

THE STATS

LOCATIONS

Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: COP Stock Exchange: NYSE President and CEO: Jim Mulva 2003 Employees: 104,196 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): 232,571

Houston, TX (HQ) Locations in more than 40 countries

KEY COMPETITORS

DEPARTMENTS Chemicals and Plastics Production Distribution Exploration Marketing Natural Gas Gathering Petroleum Petroleum Refining Production Processing Supply Transportation

BP ChevronTexaco Exxon Mobil

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.conocophillips.com/careers


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers ConocoPhillips

THE SCOOP

The youngest of the big three ConocoPhillips is the newest energy mega-company on the block. Following the mergers of Exxon and Mobil in 1999 and Chevron and Texaco in 2001, the consensus among industry observers was that the rest of the players in the oil market would need to find partners if they wished to remain competitive. After a lengthy courtship and regulatory review, the merger between Conoco and Phillips Petroleum was completed in August 2002. The combined strength of the two companies positioned ConocoPhillips as the thirdlargest integrated energy company in the United States (trailing only the aforementioned ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco). Looking to the future, ConocoPhillips has opted to focus more on the exploration and production side of the business, rather than refining and marketing activities. The company is in the midst of a post-merger restructuring plan to sell off $4 billion worth of refining and marketing assets. The proceeds from these sales will be used to pay down debt.

From the drill to the pump ConocoPhillips consists of five major business groups: upstream, midstream, downstream, chemicals and emerging businesses. “Upstream,” in energy industry jargon, refers to oil exploration and production activities. ConocoPhillips produces or explores for energy resources throughout the world – a total of 29 countries in all. In the United States, the company is one of the major oil producers in Alaska’s North Slope region and owns energy extraction rights to more than one million acres in the state. ConocoPhillips produces crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids and also mines oil sands for bitumen, which is then processed into synthetic crude oil (Syncrude). Worldwide, the company’s proven reserves total an estimated 7.8 billion barrels of oil or oil equivalents plus an additional 300 million barrels of Syncrude. ConocoPhillips pumps out an average of 682,000 barrels of crude oil and 46,000 barrels of natural gas every day. Midstream operations consist of gathering, processing, storing and transporting natural gas and natural gas liquids. A large portion of ConcoPhillips’ midstream business is conducted through its 30 percent stake in Duke Energy Field Services (DEFS), a joint venture between the company and Duke Energy. Though a minority owner in DEFS, ConocoPhillips has a close relationship to the company; DEFS

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purchases a substantial amount of raw natural gas from ConocoPhillips’ upstream group and in turn sells many of its refined products to the company’s chemicals business. Apart from its interest in DEFS, ConocoPhillips also has some wholly owned midstream assets, including nine natural gas liquids processing plants and two underground natural gas storage facilities. The company’s downstream business group is responsible for refining, transporting and marketing crude oil and petroleum products such as gasoline, aviation fuel and industrial lubricants. ConocoPhillips owns 12 oil refineries in the United States with a total capacity of 2.1 million barrels per day. Once refined, the fuel then moves on to the last link in the product chain – distribution and marketing. Currently, ConocoPhillips owns approximately 17,000 gas stations worldwide, though that figure is expected to decline as the company continues its planned reduction in marketing assets. In the United States, the company’s gas is sold under the Phillips 66, Conoco and 76 brand names; elsewhere, ConocoPhillips gasoline is sold as Jet (U.K., northern Europe), Turkpetrol (Turkey) and ProJet (Thailand and Malaysia).

More than just oil While ConocoPhillips’s upstream, midstream and downstream operations are closely linked and tightly integrated, its final two business groups stand somewhat apart. All of the company’s chemicals business is conducted through Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. (CPChem), a 50/50 joint venture with ChevronTexaco. CPChem is a leading manufacturer of petrochemicals and plastics such as ethylene, propylene, styrene, benzene and polyethylene. ConocoPhillips’s final division is its emerging business group, which conducts research and develops new energy technologies that fall outside the company’s traditional operations. One area that was thought to have a bright future was the production of carbon fibers from refinery waste products. Carbon fibers are used in the manufacture of lightweight, high-strength composite materials – a market that is considered to have strong growth potential. ConocoPhillips completed construction on a $125 million carbon fiber manufacturing plant in Oklahoma in 2002. Citing “market, operating, and technology uncertainties, “however, the company abandoned the project and shut down the factory in February 2003. Other R&D projects continue, though. ConocoPhillips has developed and licensed a technology that reduces the sulfur content in gasoline and diesel fuel and is working on a gas-to-liquid treatment process that will reduce the cost of natural gas transportation.


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Rockefeller’s Rocky Mountain representative At the time of their merger, both Conoco and Phillips were established companies with long and storied histories. Conoco started out as the Continental Oil and Transportation Co., founded by Isaac Elder in Ogden, Utah, in 1875. In 1885, the company was absorbed into the Rockefeller-controlled Standard Oil Trust. Shortening its name to Continental Oil, the company became Standard’s designated distributor for the Rocky Mountain region. Thanks to Standard’s domination of the U.S. oil market, Continental’s reach grew; by 1906, the company controlled an incredible 98 percent of the oil market in its territory. In 1913, however, Standard’s 34 subsidiary companies all regained their independence after a Supreme Court ruling dissolved the Trust. Continental opened its first retail gas station in 1914. Over the next few years, the company entered into a series of mergers and acquisitions with other regional oil companies. Continental acquired United Oil in 1916, merged with Mutual Oil in 1924, and merged again with Marland Oil in 1926. The Marland merger transformed Continental into a truly integrated oil company, combining Continental’s strength in distribution and marketing with Marland’s substantial production and refining capacity.

Conoco acquired, Conoco indepenedent – again In the 1930s, Continental bolstered its distribution capacity by building a pipeline from Oklahoma, where its production wells were located, to Chicago. The company also pioneered new markets for petroleum by developing the first effective engine lubrication oil. To entice more customers to visit Continental gas stations, the company opened Conoco Travel Bureaus across the country. The travel bureaus distributed road maps bearing the location of Conoco gas stations, a clever marketing strategy that increased the company’s visibility. Following World War II, Continental purchased several western European gas station chains, expanding its retail business overseas for the first time. Next, Continental began diversifying into new industries, acquiring American Agricultural Chemicals in 1963 and Consolidation Coal (Consol) in 1966. During this same period, the company also began exploring for uranium resources and expanded its existing oil exploration efforts. Though Continental had been marketing its products under the Conoco brand name for many years, it was not until 1979 that the company officially changed its name. The freshly re-named Conoco soon became the target of a number of separate hostile takeover bids – from the likes of Seagram, Mobil, Texaco and a few others – in 1980 and 1981. Fearing a buyout and breakup of the company, Conoco instead negotiated a friendly takeover by the 66

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chemical giant DuPont in 1981. The move was successful in preserving the integrity, if not the independence, of the company. Conoco eventually did regain its independence, though. In 1998, DuPont spun the company off in what was the largest IPO ever at the time – close to $4.4 billion. In 2001, just prior to entering into merger negotiations with Phillips, Conoco acquired Gulf Canada Resources in a $6.3 billion deal. The acquisition increased Conoco’s natural gas reserves by approximately one billion barrels.

Phillips’ path to the merger Phillips Petroleum – the other half of today’s ConocoPhillips – was founded by Frank Phillips in Bartlesville, Okla., in 1917. Phillips had come to Oklahoma around the turn of the century to explore for oil on Native American lands. After initially striking “black gold” in 1905, Phillips began an incredible streak of good luck – 81 consecutive successful oil wells. With this substantial oil reserve under his control, Phillips founded the company to expand into oil refining, natural gas processing and retail distribution. The first Phillips gas station opened in 1927 in Wichita, Kansas. Over the years the company’s researchers made a number of significant advances in both the oil and petrochemical industries. Phillips was the first company to market propane to consumers for heating and cooking (1929), developed the HF Alkylation process used in producing high-octane fuels (1940) and invented new varieties of plastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene (1951). The company would expand its production area as well. Phillips became the first U.S. company to drill for oil in Alaska in 1952, and it discovered the North Sea oilfields in 1969. Like Conoco, Phillips also became the target of hostile takeover bids by “corporate raiders” in the 1980s. Rather than seeking a friendly buyout as Conoco had, however, Phillips opted instead to buy back massive quantities of its outstanding stock. Though effective in staving off a takeover, the repurchase raised the company’s debt load to more than $9 billion. This forced Phillips to cut 8,300 jobs and sell off billions more in assets to manage its debt. Phillips began looking for a potential partner as early as the mid-1990s. The company was involved in negotiations to merge its refining and marketing operations with those of two different companies – Conoco’s in 1996 and Ultramar Diamond Shamrock’s in 1999 – but, in each case, the talks eventually broke down. In 2000, Phillips finally did make a deal, combining its natural gas gathering and processing business with Duke Energy to form the joint venture Duke Energy Field Services. Also that year, the company merged its chemicals division with Chevron and purchased ARCO’s Alaskan oilfields for $7 billion. The following year brought another big acquisition Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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when Phillips acquired Tosco’s petroleum marketing business (76 gas stations, Circle K convenience stores) for $9.3 billion.

The big deal Conoco and Phillips Petroleum began negotiating their merger in 2001 and completed the deal in August 2002. James Mulva, who had been the chief executive at Phillips at the time of the merger, was appointed president and CEO of the newly combined company. Conoco’s old boss, Archie Dunham, assumed the role of chairman of the board. The combination of the two companies is expected to generate more than $1.25 billion in cost saving “synergies.” Soon after the merger, in November 2002, ConocoPhillips announced a restructuring plan aimed at increasing its return on capital and reducing its debt. To accomplish this, the company announced that it would reduce its capital spending budget and begin selling off under-performing assets. The asset sales were to be targeted primarily (though not exclusively) at downstream holdings. Immediately after announcing the restructuring plan, ConocoPhillips struck a deal to sell 800 of its retail locations in New York and New England to local convenience store/gas station chain Cumberland Farms. Early in 2003, the company shed two of its oil refineries. The first, located outside of Denver, was sold to Canadian oil company Suncor Energy in April. Two months later, the Woods Cross refinery near Salt Lake City was sold to the Holly Corp. Most recently, ConocoPhillips reached an agreement to sell its Circle K properties to the Montreal-based convenience store chain Alimentation Couche-Tard in October 2003. The deal, worth an estimated $830 million, covers 1,663 company-owned Circle K stores in 16 states, plus oversight of an additional 350 independently owned Circle K franchises. Circle K will continue to sell ConocoPhillips fuel though, as the company has a contract with Alimentation to deliver 1.2 billion gallons of gasoline per year. Cutbacks have occurred on the exploration and production side of the business as well; the company reportedly sold $600 million worth of upstream assets during the fourth quarter of 2002. But ConocoPhillips, like other oil companies including Marathon and Shell, is clearly eager to scale back its involvement in lower-margin businesses like refining and marketing. Downstream operations, while accounting for 79 percent of total sales, earned the company just $143 million in 2002. In contrast, the upstream business, with 18 percent of sales, brought in $1.7 billion in profits. Ultimately, ConocoPhillips would like to retain between 300 and 350 retail gas stations under its three core brands, primarily in the Midwest and western United States. The cash

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raised by these divestitures is being used to repay debt, with the goal of reducing the company’s debt-to-capital ratio from 39 to the mid-30s.

Boosting production In 2003, ConocoPhillips opted to pour nearly its entire capital investment budget into exploration and production projects, a clear indication of its new business focus. One of its newest production sites, in China’s Bohai Bay, began oil deliveries at the start of the year. Currently, the offshore oilfield is producing 30,000 barrels of oil per day, but the total is expected to ramp up over the next few years as more wells come on line. So, far ConocoPhillips has discovered seven viable wells in the area, with two of those discoveries coming during 2003 and exploration efforts continuing. Meanwhile, the Bayu-Undan natural gas field, located beneath the Timor Sea, is expected to begin production of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) in 2004 and liquid natural gas (LNG) in 2006. In December 2003, ConocoPhillips agreed to acquire a 50 percent stake in a liquid natural gas development project in Texas. The company will invest between $400 million and $450 million in the construction of an LNG terminal in Quintana, about 70 miles south of Houston. When complete, the Quintana facility will increase ConocoPhillips’s natural gas production capacity by 1 billion cubic feet per day.

Energy for the future Further down the road, ConocoPhillips is looking to Alaska, Alberta and Venezuela as potential sites for future expansion. In September 2003, a consortium of companies including ConocoPhillips, Eni and the Chinese Petroleum Company of Taiwan won exploration rights to a newly opened area in Venezuela’s Gulf of Paria. Conoco already owns an interest in another production operation in the area and hopes to discover commercially viable wells in this parcel as well. Two exploratory wells are scheduled to be drilled in 2004. ConocoPhillips is also set to begin construction on a new Syncrude production facility in Alberta, Canada. In November 2003, the ConocoPhillips board of directors approved a $1.1 billion project that will eventually produce 100,000 barrels of Syncrude per day by 2012. The facility will use a process known as steam assisted gravity drainage to extract bitumen from the oilsands and process it into synthetic crude oil. Finally, ConcoPhillips revealed in 2003 that it is considering an enormous $20 billion natural gas pipeline project from Alaska to the lower 48 states. Though the pipeline will take 10 years to build, it would deliver enough natural gas to meet 5 percent of the total U.S. consumption each year. The company has stated that it would need federal aid in order to assume Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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the risks associated with the project. Specifically, ConocoPhillips would like federal loan guarantees that will protect its investment in the event that natural gas prices decline significantly in the future.

Oil prices, profits climb ConocoPhillips, like most energy companies, had a strong year financially in 2003. Oil prices and revenues were boosted by the supply disruptions caused by the U.S.Iraq war. ConocoPhillips’ average sale price for oil rose from around $24 per barrel in 2002 to nearly $27.50 per barrel in 2003. Natural gas prices were up even more dramatically over the same timeframe: from $2.77 per thousand cubic feet to slightly more than $4. The company’s total revenue topped $105 billion in 2003, with $4.5 billion in net profits. In 2004, energy prices are expected to gradually decline from these abnormally high levels, so it remains to be seen if ConocoPhillips can continue to turn in such numbers. Nevertheless, it was an encouraging start for the company in its first full year of existence. Investors were also high on ConocoPhillips, as the company’s shares rose from the mid-$40s at the time of the merger to above the $83 mark in October 2004.

GETTING HIRED

Student recruiting efforts ConocoPhillips conducts on-campus recruiting, usually during the fall semester, at large universities such as the Colorado School of Mines, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Louisiana State and others. The company is particularly interested in students majoring in areas such as accounting, finance, business administration, human resources, computer science, information systems, engineering, geophysics, geology and graduate-level geosciences. An updated recruiting schedule is available at the ConocoPhillips web site. Recruiters interview candidates for both internship and full-time positions. The company’s summer internship program, known as STARS (Strive to Achieve Real Success), has positions available in various locations across North America. ConocoPhillips also has separate recruiting and internship programs targeted at business school students. The company’s MBA recruiting is focused mainly on four schools: Carnegie Mellon, Rice, Texas-Austin and Virginia.

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The 411 on CP At its peak, Houston-based ConocoPhillips weighed in with a hefty 55,800 employees; that figure is estimated to be significantly lower now due to the sale of many of its retail gas stations in 2003. While the company maintains exploration and production activities on every continent, most of its refining and marketing operations are located in North America. ConocoPhillips’ web site lists all open positions and has detailed descriptions of career opportunities in upstream engineering, downstream engineering, finance, geosciences, information technology, human resources and marketing.

All about the benefits Once hired, ConocoPhillips employees receive a base salary plus performance-based incentive bonuses. The company’s standard benefits include life and disability insurance, a cash balance retirement plan and a choice of health insurance plans that include prescription drug and dental coverage. Employees also have the option of contributing to tax-free flexible spending accounts, which may be used to cover additional health or dependent care costs. Other notable ConocoPhillips perks include tuition reimbursement, a stock savings plan, a matching charitable gift pledge and a scholarship program reserved for dependents of current employees.


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Consolidated Edison 4 Irving Place New York, NY 10003 Phone: (212) 460-4600 Fax: (212) 982-7816 www.conedison.com

LOCATIONS New York, NY (HQ) Pearl River, NY

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ED Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman and CEO: Eugene R. McGrath 2003 Employees: 14,000 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $9,827

KEY COMPETITORS DEPARTMENTS Engineering Environmental Finance Health and Safety Information Technology Management Skilled Trades

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Energy East KeySpan National Grid USA

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.coned.com/careers

© 2005 Vault Inc.

Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Consolidated Edison

THE SCOOP

Who turned on the lights? Consolidated Edison, or one of its corporate ancestors, has been powering New York City since before the age electricity. As New York’s public utility company, Con Ed delivers electricity, natural gas or steam to customers in all five of the city’s boroughs. In recent years, however, the company has expanded beyond its traditional utility role. The decision by the State of New York to deregulate the electricity market in 1997 has brought sweeping changes to both Con Ed and the energy industry as a whole. That year, the company reincorporated, creating separate subsidiaries for its New York City utility operations and its various unregulated energy market activities. In the face of increased competition, Con Edison’s utility subsidiary has sold nearly all of its power plants. Instead, it has opted to concentrate on providing transmission and distribution services, areas where the company has a long history of expertise. Meanwhile, Con Edison Development, one of the unregulated subsidiaries, has taken up the slack by investing in power plants that serve the competitive power market. Since re-incorporation, the company has been working to expand both its utility and unregulated businesses. Though the company has, overall, made a smooth transition to the new deregulated landscape, not every effort has been successful. One area of Con Edison’s business that has especially struggled is Con Edison Communications, a telecom provider and the company’s sole non-energy-related subsidiary. Con Edison recorded a $159 million charge in fiscal year 2003 to cover losses at the unit, and company officials have stated that they are “evaluating strategic alternatives” for the business.

Delivering the Big Apple’s juice Consolidated Edison Inc. (Con Edison) is the holding company of six different subsidiaries, the largest of which is the Consolidated Edison Co. of New York (Con Ed). Con Ed provides service to most of New York City (except for the Rockaway section of Queens) and parts of Westchester County, New York. Electricity is Con Ed’s biggest business, accounting for 80 percent of the company’s revenue. The deregulated electricity market has given Con Ed customers the option of purchasing their electricity from the utility or from an independent supplier of their choice (either way, Con Ed provides the delivery services). Though many commercial and industrial customers have moved to third-party suppliers, the vast majority of residential customers continue to buy their electricity from Con Ed, just like in the Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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old days. Since the company has very little generating capacity of its own, Con Ed buys most of its power from non-utility generators. The company also has 1.1 million natural gas customers, accounting for 14.5 percent of its revenue. Con Ed provides gas service in Manhattan, the Bronx and parts of Queens and Westchester counties. The company’s final area of business is its steam utility service, available to customers in Manhattan south of 96th Street. Con Ed maintains the largest steam utility system in the world. Its customers are primarily large office buildings, apartment buildings and hospitals, which use steam to power heating and/or air-conditioning systems. Con Edison also owns a second utility company, Orange & Rockland Utilities, which provides electricity and natural gas to approximately 400,000 customers in seven counties in southern New York State, northern New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania. Con Edison’s four other subsidiaries are unregulated, non-utility companies. Con Edison Solutions markets electricity to Con Ed and Orange & Rockland Utilities customers who choose not to buy from their utility. The advantage to customers in this deal is that while the rate charged by their utility can fluctuate according to demand, Con Edison Solutions offers fixed-rate contracts for a pre-determined period of time (usually one year). For environmentally conscious consumers, Con Edison Solutions offers fossil fuel-free “Green Power.” For a slightly higher rate, customers can purchase electricity that has been generated only by windmills and low-impact hydroelectric generators. Another of the company’s subsidiaries, Con Edison Development, invests in unregulated energy infrastructure projects, chiefly in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. The company, either alone or in partnerships with other investors, owns and operates power plants in Michigan, Guatemala, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Maryland. Con Edison Energy, meanwhile, is active in the unregulated wholesale energy market. The company offers supply, logistics and risk management services to companies spanning the breadth of the energy industry: from generators to distributors to traders to large-scale municipal consumers. Finally, Con Edison Communications is a telecommunications company that owns an underground fiber optic network in New York City. The company provides voice and data service to large and mid-sized businesses as well as wholesale bandwidth to Internet service providers (ISPs).

From kerosene to the light bulb The earliest predecessor to today’s Con Edison appeared in 1823, when the New York Gas Light Company was founded. In 1880, following Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb, a number of prominent New York financiers including, J.P. Morgan 74

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founded the Edison Electric Illuminating Company. In 1882, New York became the first city with electric power when Edison Electric wired a small area of downtown Manhattan around Pearl Street. Soon, dozens of tiny electric companies sprang up in the city, each powering a small section of the island. In 1884, New York Gas Light merged with five other local gas companies to form the Consolidated Gas Co. of New York. Recognizing that the future was in electricity, Consolidated Gas began buying up many of these small electric businesses. In 1901, Consolidated Gas and Edison Electric merged to form New York Edison. The newly combined company soon established itself as the dominant force in the New York electric industry and began snapping up its smaller rivals. A total of 170 acquisitions would follow over the next 30 years, culminating in the purchase of the New York Steam Company in 1930. Responding to corporate abuses of the utilities’ monopoly powers, Congress passed the Public Utilities Holding Company Act (PUHCA) in 1935. The law changed the entire structure of the electric industry, restricting the ability of utility companies to diversify into other industries and mandating regulatory oversight of the rates that they were permitted to charge their customers. In reshuffling the corporation to comply with these new regulations, the various holdings of New York Edison were combined and a new company, the Consolidated Edison Company of New York, was formed.

Regulation ends, dealmaking begins In the mid-1990s, many states began investigating the possibility of deregulating their electricity industries. Under deregulation, customers would not be forced to buy electricity from their utility company. Instead, they would be able to buy electricity from the generator of their choice, and their utility company would be required to allow open access to their distribution grid. New York deregulated its electric market in 1997. In response, Con Ed restructured itself, forming the holding company Consolidated Edison Inc. in 1998. Early on, the utility company decided that it would exit the generation business altogether and focus solely on transmission and distribution. In 1999, Con Ed sold off about $1.65 billion in generating assets to nonutility generating companies such as Keyspan, Northern States Power and Orion Power. That same year, the company took $790 million of the proceeds from these sales and acquired Orange & Rockland Utilities in order to expand its utility customer base. An even bigger deal – to acquire Connecticut-based Northeast Utilities – was also proposed in 1999. Under the terms of the agreement, Con Edison would have acquired Northeast Utilities, which owns power distribution systems in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, for $3.3 billion in cash and an additional $3.9 billion in assumed debt. By 2001, however, the deal had fallen Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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through, and each side accused the other of failing to live up to its merger obligations. The dispute revolved around Northeast’s unregulated power marketing subsidiary, Select Energy. Select had a contract to sell power generated at the Millstone, Connecticut nuclear power plant, but that contract was set to expire at the end of 2001. Meanwhile, Select had a fixed-price contract with Connecticut Light & Power, a regulated utility, to provide more than 2,000 megawatts of electricity over the ensuing two years. Con Edison was concerned that without the guaranteed source of power from Millstone, Select would be forced to spend more purchasing electricity on the open market to fulfill its contract with Connecticut Light than it was receiving in the fixed-price contract. Con Edison accused Northeast of concealing these unfavorable contracts when the merger was being negotiated and of violating its own risk-management policies. It claimed that this constituted a breach of the merger agreement and sued Northeast. Northeast, meanwhile, had seen its stock fall in value in the year and a half since the merger terms were agreed upon. It accused Con Edison of making up excuses to renegotiate the deal and counter-sued. The case remains tied up in court.

Nuclear standoff The Indian Point nuclear power plant, formerly owned by Con Edison, has also been a source of controversy for the company. Between 1997 and 2000, reactors at Indian Point were forced to shut down on four separate occasions due to safety concerns. The most recent stoppage, in February 2000, lasted for nearly a year when a radioactive leak was found in one of the reactor’s steam tubes. As a result, Con Edison had to purchase replacement electricity from other generators to make up for the shortfall. Since 2000, the company has been trying to recoup the losses from these shutdowns through a rate hike. New York state officials, however, fought the increase. They claimed that the shutdowns were caused by Con Edison’s negligence in operating the plant and sought to prevent the company from passing the costs on to its customers. The dispute was finally settled in December 2003 when Con Edison agreed to refund $45.5 million to its customers and drop its plans for $89.5 million in rate increases. The Indian Point plant, meanwhile, was sold to the Entergy Corporation in 2001 for $502 million.

Miles of wires In October 2003, Con Ed was named the most reliable utility in North America for the second year in a row. The rankings, which were compiled by PA Consulting, showed Con Ed with a reliability rating that was nine times the national average. Of 76

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course, having most of its power lines buried underground gives Con Ed an advantage over most other utilities, whose lines are exposed to the elements. But maintaining an underground distribution system presents its own set of challenges. In April 2003, the company opened a new $10 million research facility in the Bronx in partnership with the Electric Power Research Institute. The lab includes computerized testing equipment and a “weathered” manhole environment that simulates typical underground conditions. Con Ed anticipates that this research and testing will further boost the reliability of its approximately 91,000 miles of underground power lines. In all, the company plans to invest $1 billion to upgrade New York’s power infrastructure over the next five to 10 years. That increase in capacity and reliability will be needed, as New York’s electric consumption continues to climb. In January 2004, Con Ed broke winter consumption and peak load records that had been set just one year earlier. On January 15, in the middle of an unusually frigid month in New York City, electric consumption totaled 177,528 megawatthours and peak load topped out at 8,760 megawatts.

An information utility? In 2003, Con Edison became one of a small group of utility companies that are pioneering an emerging data transmission standard: power line communications (PLC). In June the company began a limited field trial with Massachusetts-based Ambient Corp. to provide Internet access over power lines to a limited area of Westchester County, New York. The technology itself isn’t actually all that new; networking companies have been experimenting with PLC since the 1990s. Early trials experienced difficulties, however, in dealing with the “noise” created by the electric current traveling across the same wires. Also, data signals degrade rapidly when sent over power lines and need to be amplified every mile or so. As the technology has matured and these obstacles overcome, PLC has moved closer to becoming a viable option. Power line communications is a so-called “last-mile” solution, meaning that it bridges the gap between the long-haul Internet backbone network and individual PCs. Instead of using cable wires or DSL lines to accomplish this (the two dominant methods existing today), PLC uses the electric grid. The technology has several advantages over cable and DSL. One is that the wired infrastructure is already in place; utility companies could begin offering PLC service with only a comparatively small investment in the necessary networking equipment. Power line communication is also attractive because it makes it extremely easy to set up home networks. Since most homes already have dozens of electrical sockets, PCs, Tivos or any number of Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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other info-gadgets could be easily connected to the Internet simply by plugging them in. Finally, while data transmission rates are said to be comparable to cable or DSL, industry analysts predict that PLC could be offered for a little as $30/month. Con Edison officials caution that the company is unlikely to enter the already-crowded consumer ISP market. Instead, the company would sell its bandwidth wholesale to existing ISPs; companies such as AT&T and EarthLink have already expressed an interest in the technology. But PLC could potentially provide benefits to utility companies beyond just an additional revenue stream. Con Edison envisions outfitting homes with Internet-enabled electric meters, creating a “smart” power grid. The company would then be able to gather consumption data remotely, pinpoint power outages immediately, and improve reliability by more efficiently monitoring and managing load.

GETTING HIRED

The 411 on applying Hiring at Con Edison is conducted separately for each subsidiary company. The majority of the company’s open positions are with its Con Ed utility, though the web sites for Orange & Rockland Utilities and Con Edison Communications also have employment information. Jobs at Con Ed are classified into one of six departments: engineering, environmental health and safety, finance, information technology, skilled trades and “other professional positions.” The company’s web site posts an updated list of open positions, but there is no automated resume submission system. Job seekers must e-mail, fax or mail in their resumes and cover letters (be sure to note the job code ID numbers when applying for jobs). Naturally, all Con Ed jobs are located in the New York City metro area.

A powerful workplace College seniors and recent college graduates are eligible to apply for Con Ed’s Growth Opportunities for Leadership Development (GOLD) program. The company is particularly interested in candidates with degrees in accounting, finance, electrical engineering, civil engineering, chemical engineering, environmental engineering and mechanical engineering. The program, which begins each June, consists of a series of rotational job assignments and includes frequent contact with a mentor from the ranks of Con Ed’s senior management. The company conducts on-campus recruiting

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at New York metro-area colleges such as: City College of New York (CCNY), the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Fordham University, Cooper Union, St. John’s and Stevens Tech. Con Ed also visits other select universities throughout the northeast; the full list of target schools can be found on the company web site. In addition to the GOLD program, Con Ed also offers summer internship opportunities in a variety of different departments. Applicants should have a GPA of at least 3.0 and be majoring in mathematics, science, engineering, computer science, accounting or finance.

Great for minorities Employees at Con Ed receive a benefits package that includes pension and 401(k) plans; medical, dental and vision insurance; and tuition assistance. The company was twice honored by Fortune magazine in 2003, making both the “America’s Most Admired Companies” list and the “50 Best Companies for Minorities” list. Con Ed placed second among utility companies in the Most Admired rankings. Meanwhile, the company has appeared on the Best Companies for Minorities list every year since its inception in 1998. Minorities make up 36.8 percent of Con Ed’s workforce and account for almost half of all new hires.


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Duke Energy Corporation 526 S. Church St Charlotte, NC 28202 Phone: (704) 594-6200 Fax: (704) 382-3814 www.duke-energy.com

LOCATIONS

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: DUK Stock Exchange: NYSE CEO: Paul Anderson 2003 Employees: 23,800 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $22,529

Charlotte, NC (HQ) With operations in: Alabama • Arizona • Colorado • Florida • Georgia • North Carolina • Ohio • Oklahoma • South Carolina • Texas • Wyoming

DEPARTMENTS Administrative Construction Customer Service Engineering Finance Gas/Electric Commodities Human Resources Information Systems Legal Management Marketing Nuclear Operations Plant Operations/Maintenance Procurement Project Management Public Affairs Real Estate Risk Management and Sales

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KEY COMPETITORS American Electric Power Koch Progress Energy

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.duke-energy.com/careers/

© 2005 Vault Inc.

Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Duke Energy Corporation

THE SCOOP

Old-fashioned energy Duke Energy, once scorned by Wall Street as too conservative, managed to emerge from the post-Enron fallout in much better shape than many of its competitors. Unlike Enron, Duke was never purely a power trading company. Instead, it owns a variety of energy-related assets such as pipelines, power plants and storage facilities. In addition, Duke has a stable source of income from its traditional electric utility operations in the Carolinas. Though once considered a liability, this diverse collection of tangible infrastructure now looks like the company’s greatest asset. Nevertheless, Duke has experienced its share of growing pains recently. The company’s rapid expansion in the 1990s and the recent downturn in the energy market has hurt Duke’s balance sheet. In an effort to shore up its finances, the company is in the midst of a restructuring plan to divest some of its non-core businesses.

Delivering the juice The traditional core of Duke Energy’s business is its regulated electric utility business. With a generating capacity of 18,000 megawatts, Duke Power – the utility subsidiary of Duke Energy – serves more than two million customers in North and South Carolina. The company is equally invested in the newly deregulated power markets as well. Duke owns an additional 14,000 megawatts of generating capacity for sale on the so-called “merchant energy” market – exchanges now forever made (in)famous by Enron. The company’s energy trading operations are conducted through its Duke Energy Trading and Marketing unit, a joint venture that is 40 percent owned by ExxonMobil. Another major piece of Duke’s business is its extensive network of natural gas pipelines. The company owns more than 19,000 miles of pipelines throughout North America, primarily in the southern and eastern U.S. and in western Canada. Internationally, Duke owns power plants, pipelines and marketing operations in South America and Australia. In addition to its core businesses, Duke Energy also has interests in a number of subsidiary companies. Duke Energy Field Services, which is 30 percent owned by ConocoPhillips, gathers, processes and stores natural gas produced mainly in western Canada and the Gulf of Mexico. Another joint venture, between Duke and Fluor Daniel, is a power plant engineering and construction company. With demand for new power plants dropping, however, the two companies have announced their Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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intention to dissolve the Duke/Fluor Daniel partnership within two years. In addition to these complementary businesses, Duke also holds interests in some unrelated ventures – among them a merchant finance company, a real estate holding company, an operator of cellular communications towers and a fiber-optic networking company.

Tobacco power Duke Energy was originally founded as the Catawba Power Company in 1900 by Gill Wylie. In 1904, the company completed its first power plant – a hydroelectric generating station on the Catawba River in South Carolina. The following year, the Duke family joined the company. The Dukes earned their fortune by founding the American Tobacco Company, and would later go on to lend their name (and piles of cash) to a small college in North Carolina. Catawba was renamed the Southern Power Company, and Benjamin N. Duke became vice-president. Gill Wylie remained president of the new venture. In 1910, Benjamin’s brother James B. Duke, took over the reins as president of Southern Power. He proceeded to expand the company’s business by establishing the Mill-Power Supply Company, which sold electrical equipment to industrial customers and began investing in electric powered textile mills. In 1913, Duke organized the Southern Public Utility Company, a subsidiary that bought up several public utilities in North Carolina’s piedmont region. In 1924, Southern Power was renamed Duke Power. Within a year, both founders – Wylie and J.B. Duke – would be dead. In 1950, Duke Power went public. Throughout the ‘50s, the company’s business would grow due to the increasing urbanization and industrialization of the Carolinas. In 1969, Duke took its first foray outside of the energy business with the formation of its Crescent Resources subsidiary, a real estate development company. The 1970s brought further diversification, as the energy crisis compelled Duke Power to look to businesses such as coal mining and nuclear power to shore up its bottom line. In 1988, the company began to expand its service area beyond North and South Carolina for the first time – a trend that would greatly accelerate in the coming decade.

From Power to Energy In 1992, Duke Power expanded overseas for the first time with the purchase of a power plant in Argentina. Two years later, DukeNet Communications was formed. The new subsidiary began to lay fiber-optic cables along rights-of-way owned by the company, selling the wholesale bandwidth to communications companies,

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educational institutions and government agencies. That same year, CEO Richard Priory took over the top spot at the company. Priory would be responsible for guiding Duke through much of its dramatic expansion over the next few years. Duke Power partnered with Mobil (now ExxonMobil) in 1996 to found Duke Energy Trading and Marketing. DETM was dedicated to trading power on the merchant energy market and received exclusive rights to market all of Duke and Mobil’s natural gas production. As deregulation of the energy industry spread in the 1990s, utility companies such as Duke were permitted to increase their holdings in energy delivery systems such as pipeline operators. In 1997, Duke Power went out and acquired one of the biggest pipeline outfits available, PanEnergy. The company was one of the largest pipeline operators in the U.S., owning an extensive delivery network in the eastern half of the country. The combined Duke Power and PanEnergy would rename itself Duke Energy, with the Duke Power name retained only for the division that provides utility service in the Carolinas.

Energetic growth Even after gobbling up PanEnergy, Duke’s appetite was still not satisfied. In 1998, the company purchased an array of infrastructure assets including three power plants in California, an Australian pipeline company and a 52 percent block of the Electroquil power company in Ecuador. That same year, Duke Communications Services, a subsidiary dedicated to building cellular communications towers and leasing the transmission capacity to wireless operators, was formed. In 2000, the company’s string of acquisitions continued with the purchase of the East Tennessee Natural Gas Company from the El Paso Corporation, several South American power generation facilities and a 20 percent stake in Canadian 88 Energy. Also in 2000, Duke combined its gas gathering and processing operations with those of Phillips (now ConocoPhillips) to create the joint venture Duke Energy Field Services. Duke Energy holds a 70 percent stake in DEFS. The company’s most recent major acquisition was the $8 billion purchase of Vancouver-based Westcoast Energy. Announced in September 2001, the deal was completed the following March. With the purchase, Duke Energy gained 1 million natural gas customers and more than 6,900 miles of pipeline. Westcoast had been one of the largest North American natural gas companies, and analysts expect that, within 10 years, Duke will have captured 30-35 percent of the market for natural gas transportation between the U.S. and Canada.


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Looking for a little respect In the late 1990s, buying hard assets like the kind acquired by Duke Energy was an extremely unfashionable move. With flashy new businesses like Enron – which were seemingly able to make money without owning anything – Duke Energy was seen as something of a dinosaur. But while investors may not have appreciated the company, the public at large seemed to. For five straight years between 1998 and 2002, Duke Energy was the top ranked energy company in Fortune magazine’s annual list of the “World’s Most Admired Companies.”

Wash trades sully reputation The energy sector as a whole was hit hard in late 2001 and 2002. For much of that period, however, Duke Energy’s stock had managed to retain much of its value, partly due to the fact that its businesses were diversified and not overly dependent upon merchant energy trading activities. But the company’s clean and scandal-free image likely played a part as well. In July 2002, Duke’s run of good luck came to an end. That month, the company admitted to engaging in 23 so-called “wash trades” between 1999 and 2001. Wash trades, also known as “round trip” contracts, occur when two companies agree to buy and sell a certain quantity of energy at the same price simultaneously. Though no money changes hands, the trades have the effect of artificially inflating each company’s revenues and the market’s overall trading volume. These types of contracts, while not technically illegal, are considered unethical at the very least and have come under scrutiny during investigations into power trading practices. The number of round-trip trades executed by Duke traders represented just 0.1 percent of the company’s total trading volume and accounted for less than $120 million in revenues out of a total of $100 billion during the three year period. It could, perhaps, be argued that $120 million was a financially insignificant amount given the total revenue generated during the three-year period; nevertheless, the admission was enough to spook investors. Duke Energy’s stock tumbled from around the $37 mark in April 2002 to under $19 per share three months later. In March 2003, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released the results of their investigation into the California energy trading scandal. The FERC report did not name Duke as one of the companies guilty of manipulating energy prices and recommended that the company be spared from any punitive damages. Duke will, however, be responsible for a portion of the estimated $3.3 billion to be refunded to California energy customers, since it had sold energy in an artificially inflated market. Duke Energy spokesman Terry Francisco said that it had not yet been determined what Duke’s share of the $3.3 billion would be. Despite this 84

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potential liability in the future, the findings were clearly good news as they cleared the company of the most damaging charges brought against it. FERC did cite Duke for publishing misleading sales data and engaging in “wash trades” but reported that the company had been cooperating with government investigators in reforming their reporting practices. In addition, two employees from Duke’s Houston office were fired for their involvement round-trip trades.

Too profitable In the unusual world of regulated utilities, companies can sometimes be penalized for making too much money. Regulators in South Carolina permit Duke Power to turn a 12 to 12.5 percent profit on their operations in the state. For the fiscal year ending in March 2003, however, the company earned 14.25 percent. Duke Power attributed the unexpected gains to increased sales of wholesale power to other utilities and higher retail usage due to abnormal weather. Company officials had hoped to erase the excess profit by accelerating the amortization of some of its debt. In September 2003, however, the South Carolina regulatory commission ruled that Duke must return $30 million to its customers to meet the profit cap. Residential electric consumers will receive a 2 percent credit on their bills; industrial customers, meanwhile, stand to gain nearly 4 percent. Duke Power officials report that although the ruling will reduce their 2003 earnings by about 3 cents per share, the company will nevertheless meet their projected earnings target.

Outlook: dim, for now In an effort to get the company pointed in the right direction once again, CEO Richard Priory embarked on a major restructuring plan in late 2002. In September, Duke Energy announced cutbacks in its expansion of generating capacity. Plans to build new power plants in New Mexico, Illinois and Florida were suspended, and construction at two half-completed facilities in Washington and New Mexico was halted. In addition, the company scaled back its schedule for several other construction projects by eliminating overtime shifts. In December 2002, Priory announced a shake-up in the Duke Energy North America business, consolidating most of DENA’s trading operations at its Houston headquarters and appointing a new management team. The reorganization resulted in approximately 275 layoffs. The most dramatic aspect of Priory’s recovery plan is the anticipated sale of $1.5 billion worth of non-core assets by the end of 2003. First to go was Duke’s Empire State Pipeline subsidiary, which was sold to Natural Fuel Gas for $240 million in


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October 2002. In March 2003, the company’s stakes in Alliance Pipeline, Alliance Canada Marketing and the Aux Sable natural gas refinery were sold to Enbridge and Fort Chicago Energy Partners for $245 million. That same month, Duke Energy agreed to sell $300 million worth of renewable energy assets to Highstar Renewable Fuels. The deal covered six facilities in the northeast U.S. that convert municipal waste to energy. Duke raised another $177 million through the sale of its Foothills Pipe Lines subsidiary to TransCanada Pipelines in May 2003. The following month, Duke Energy Hydrocarbons, which conducts natural gas exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico, was sold off for $83 million. In addition to shedding some of its energy infrastructure holdings, Duke Energy also announced in March 2003 that it would begin selling off assets belonging to Duke Capital Partners with the goal of gradually exiting the merchant finance business. Though these divestitures have been effective in improving Duke Energy’s balance sheet, Priory warned investors at the company’s 2003 shareholder conference that profits may remain depressed until the energy sector as a whole recovers from its current down market cycle. With the goal of restructuring well under way, Priory retired, handing over the reins to new CEO Paul Anderson in November 2003.

The Tar Heel State and beyond North Carolina-based Duke Energy has its headquarters in Charlotte, but offers employment in 29 locations throughout the U.S. Jobs are available in one of 19 different departments: finance, administrative, public affairs, construction, customer service, engineering, gas/electric commodities, human resources, information systems, legal, management, marketing, nuclear operations, plant operations/maintenance, procurement, project management, real estate, risk management and sales. The Duke Energy web site updates the list of available positions in all of its divisions and subsidiaries daily.

GETTING HIRED

On-campus recruiting and benefits The company conducts on-campus recruiting for internships and full-time postgraduation positions. Undergraduates are most frequently sought for jobs in engineering, accounting and finance, marketing and account management, information technology and risk analysis. As for graduate students, Duke Energy 86

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also recruits Master’s and MBA candidates. MBAs are eligible to apply for Duke’s commercial associates program, a rotational program covering trading, risk management, mergers and acquisitions, business integration, strategic planning and capital markets. Among the company’s recruiting stops are visits to large Carolina campuses such as North Carolina State, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Clemson. Duke Energy’s benefits package includes a choice of three different medical plans, dental and prescription drug coverage, and a flexible spending account for expenses related to health and dependent care. For retirement benefits, Duke offers a company-paid cash balance plan as well as matching contributions to its employees’ personal retirement savings accounts.


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Eaton Corporation Eaton Center 1111 Superior Ave. Cleveland, OH 44114-2584 Phone: (216) 523-5000 Fax: (216) 523-4787 www.eaton.com

DEPARTMENTS Accounting Business Development Engineering Human Resources Information Technology Manufacturing Marketing Production Quality Sales Supply Chain Technicial Sales

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THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: ETN Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman, President and CEO: Alexander M. Cutler 2003 Employees: 51,000 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $8,061

KEY COMPETITORS ITT Industries Johnson Controls Parker Hannifin

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT Susan J. Cook VP, Human Resources www.eatonjobs.com/career/career_ choices.asp

© 2005 Vault Inc.

Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Eaton Corporation

THE SCOOP

Worldwide industry Eaton Corporation has forged itself into a diverse manufacturer, hawking an array of industrial products across the globe through four main business segments: automotive, electrical, fluid power, and truck. Eaton serves markets as varied as military defense, sports and leisure, residential, auto, telecommunications and data, and commercial aerospace, to name a few. Here’s a quick look at how each of the four units contributed to the company’s overall $8.1 billion in sales in 2003.

Cars and trucks The automotive segment produces and sells enough different auto parts to get mechanics everywhere revved up. The unit pumps out superchargers, engine valves, cylinder heads, sensors, tire valves, “intelligent” cruise controls, fluid connectors, and decorative body moldings and spoilers. Products that promote greater fuel efficiency and greener emissions have been gaining ground in Eaton’s family of auto systems. The company claims Ford, GM, Mercedes and Nissan as past and present customers. It’s no surprise, then, that Eaton’s truck segment produces similar widgets for larger vehicles. It designs, manufactures, and markets drive-train systems for medium- and heavy-duty commercial trucks. Eaton’s truck unit has a manufacturing and marketing partnership with Dana Corporation. Together, the companies produce everything from clutches, steer and drive axles, anti-lock brakes, and collision warning systems, among other things.

Fluidity and power Hydraulics make the world move smoother. Hydraulics aren’t just used by hobbyists who like to soup up old cars. They’re also used in agriculture, construction, mining, forestry and material handling, to name a few applications. Eaton’s fluid power division handles the design and manufacture of these products, such as mobile hydraulics equipment in Chilean copper pits sitting 16,000 feet above sea level or gold mines under 11,000 feet of South African earth. Its industrial hydraulics move heavy loads, from baggage at airports to virtual reality rides at entertainment parks. The unit’s aerospace division offers hydraulic power generators and fluid fuel management systems, among a host of other products. Eaton fluid power supplies Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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more than three-fourths of all new commercial aircraft platform hydraulic enginedriven pumps. Not only that, the company also makes switches, circuit breakers, substations, transformers, panel boards and more through its electrical unit. All kinds of institutions use Eaton’s electrical devices, from high-rise apartment buildings and residences to office buildings, hospitals and factories.

Cranking away Eaton Corporation has been getting grease under its fingernails for almost a century. Back in 1911 in Bloomfield, N.J., J.O. Eaton, along with his brother-in-law and another man, V.V. Torbensen, incorporated Torbensen Gear and Axle Company to hawk its truck axles, which were built by hand. That year, the company constructed seven of them. Six years later, they had increased production to 33,000 per year. Eaton’s wife Edith thought the company should move to Cleveland, Ohio, which it promptly did in 1914. The company was soon sold to its biggest customer, but Eaton himself regained control when he bought it back in 1922. The next year, the newly renamed Eaton Axle and Spring Company made the first purchase of its own, snapping up a bumper maker in Albany, N.Y.

Picking up speed Since then, nationwide (and later, worldwide) acquisitions have been a mainstay of Eaton’s business strategy. In 1930, it bought two Detroit businesses: a coil spring manufacturer and a maker of engine valves, tappets (a lever that is moved in order to “tap” and transmit motion from one part to another), and other engine parts. Five years later it bought Detroit Motor Valve Company, and in 1946 it moved into electricity by acquiring Dynamatic Corporation, a Kenosha, Wis.-based producer of eddy current power devices. Three years later, at the age of 75, J.O. Eaton passed away at his home in Cleveland. There was a nine-year lull in acquisitions after Eaton’s death. It picked back up with the 1958 purchase of a heavy-duty truck transmissions manufacturer in Kalamazoo, Mich. After a 1963 merger, the company’s full name was changed to Eaton Yale & Towne, Inc., but it was shortened to plain-old Eaton after a shareholder vote in 1971. Business started soaring in the late ‘70s, with the nearly $400 million purchase of Cutler-Hammer, Inc., distributor of industrial control and power components for aircraft, commercial, appliance and semiconductor applications. In 1981, Eaton was picked as one of four main contractors on the Air Force’s B-1B, a long-range bomber 90

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originally designed to fly nuclear weapons low and fast into Soviet airspace. The contract pushed the company’s defense work forward.

Shifting gears Eaton endured a short-term run of hard luck when it had to shut down nine U.S. plants and sell off its materials handling business in 1983. But it sprang back and over the next two decades, began grabbing up other businesses: a 1988 acquisition of Cessna’s fluid power division that increased Eaton’s hydraulics business by 50 percent and added plants in Scotland; and the 1994 purchase of Westinghouse’s distribution and control business for $1 billion. But the real whopper – the biggest buy in Eaton’s history – was the $1.7 billion acquisition of Aeroquip-Vickers, an engineered-parts and systems manufacturer for industrial, aerospace, and autos in 1999. Around this time, Eaton also sold its appliance controls business for $310 million and its axle and brake business for $287 million, in 1997 and 1998, respectively.

Taking it to the streets Besides spanning the U.S., Eaton has stretched across the globe, establishing operations in Australia, China, South Africa, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, and Canada. But just because its reach is international doesn’t mean it has forgotten about its hometown of Cleveland. CEO Alexander Cutler chairs the board of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, a group of local businesses that hopes to funnel money into job creation and economic development. The company also does good deeds at the local level in many of its other locations. In Michigan and Pennsylvania, for instance, groups of employees work with Habitat for Humanity to build houses for low-income residents. Ninety employees from the company’s aerospace facility in Mississippi volunteered 900 hours of service to Habitat over the summer of 2003. In 2004, Eaton sponsored the annual Carnegie Science Center Award for Excellence in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Lightning bolts No company likes to be without power, yet plenty of them take electricity for granted. The blackout of 2003, in which a power-outage cascaded across much of the East coast, reminded companies of the precautions they needed to take to insure that the juice keeps flowing. Uninterruptible power systems (UPS), as they’re called, are Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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used more and more often – the market for them could grow by 5.7 percent annually each year until 2010, according to one study. That’s 27 percent faster than demand for electrical equipment overall, according to a Cleveland Plain Dealer article. The good news for Eaton is that it’s not only installed such back-up power systems in its own plants and offices, but produces them as well. “We love storms,” an Eaton exec told the newspaper. “A good lightning bolt is a great thing for the electrical business, because it wakes up people to an obvious fact, which is that power is not entirely reliable.

Power and profits To take advantage of such wake-up calls and gain a foothold in the nascent UPS market, Eaton doled out $560 million to buy Powerware Corp., the biggest supplier of UPS systems in the world, in June 2004. The deal brought the UPS concept back to its roots in Cleveland, where a company called TRW had created the technology in the 1960s. More importantly, the addition of Powerware boosted the company’s annual sales by $775 million and made electrical its largest business segment. Eaton had already been beefing up its electrical line with voltage surge suppressors and other products. It had even teamed up in a joint venture with Caterpillar, the biggest supplier of standby generators in the world, in 2003. The shift in focus from auto parts to electrical components (and to industrial hydraulics as well) has been part of a company strategy to spike profits with acquisitions in higher-performing markets. CEO Cutler’s goal is to reform his company into a diversified industrial business, which can make more money by weathering the twists and turns of the business cycle. UPS technology is a cog in the gear of greater profitability. Echoing the sentiment of analysts watching the Powerware deal, the Plain Dealer proclaimed, “UPS doesn’t just mean ‘uninterruptible power supply'; for Eaton it may also mean ‘uninterruptible profit system.'"

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GETTING HIRED

A huge opportunity To join the Eaton team, applicants can browse www.eatonjobs.com (more detailed than the career page on the company’s corporate site), where they can search a list of openings by location, department, keyword and date posted. The most impressive part of the web site, though, is the “Eaton Arcade” section, where browsers can waste hours with the games Leaky Basement or Lightening Logic. The prize for playing: access to the “How to interview with Eaton” section – and bragging rights.

Enter the Eaton dimension Increased sales at Eaton – at an all-time high in the summer of 2004 – meant the company needed new employees, and fast. It announced it wanted to hire more than 800 people in North America to fill salaried slots in engineering, marketing, finance, information technology, human resources, and plant management. That’s on top of an increase that saw the company’s worldwide workforce balloon from 51,000 in April of 2004 to 55,000 by July. Students of technical programs – as well as those in accounting, marketing, human resources, supply chain and other programs – can get their feet in the door through internships and even direct placement. Company visits to more than a dozen specifically targeted campuses are listed on the web page. Eaton recruits outstanding recent graduates for hire under what it calls “dimensions,” a series of functional developmental program tracks. The company also offers paid internships and co-ops, some for one semester, others for multiple semesters. To encourage diversity among the ranks, the company offers the Eaton Multicultural Scholars Program (EMSP). Freshman and sophomores who are studying engineering, supply chain, accounting or information technology (at “corporate target schools” only) are chosen for these paid internships.


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Edison International 2244 Walnut Grove Ave. Rosemead, CA 91770 Phone: (626) 302-1212 Fax: (626) 302-2517 www.edison.com

LOCATIONS Rosemead, CA (HQ) Boston, MA Chicago, IL Washington, DC International offices in: Australia England Indonesia Italy New Zealand Philippines Spain Thailand Turkey Wales

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: EIX Stock Exchange: NYSE CEO: John E. Bryson 2003 Employees: 15,400 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $12,135

TOP COMPETITORS AES PG&E Sempra Energy

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT HR Staffing P.O. Box 800 Rosemead, CA 91770 E-mail: [email protected] (For HR contact information for other Edison divisions, go to www.edison.com/careers/resume_tips.asp.)

www.edison.com/careers/default.asp

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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Edison International

THE SCOOP

Powerhouse Edison International is a powerhouse among California power companies, made strong by thinking ahead and recovering quickly after a series of events rocked the state’s electricity industry from the mid-1990s through the first year of the new millennium. Its very structure has helped it weather the storm. The company is made up of four main units: Edison Mission Energy, a power producer with dozens of subsidiaries; Mission Energy Holding Company; Edison Capital, which helps build affordable housing and provides financing for infrastructure and energy projects; and the largest segment, Southern California Edison (SCE), one of that state’s-and the nation’s-biggest electric utility companies. It alone serves more than 12 million people through 4.5 million accounts over a 50,000 square-mile area, though it doesn’t reach Los Angeles and a few other cities. Edison began along with the advent of electric streetlamps and the first hydroelectric plants in Southern California in the late 1800s. After nearly a century of steady growth, SCE set up Edison Mission Energy, its non-utility subsidiary, in 1985, and the predecessor to Edison Capital two years later.

Power surge Despite its West Coast roots, Edison International reaches all the way to the Far East. Through Edison Mission Energy, the company owns power plants in, among other places, Turkey, Italy, England, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia and New Zealand, for a total generating capacity of nearly 28,000 megawatts. It’s got offices in Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C., as well as eight foreign countries, and boasts combined global assets of over $33 billion. In 1996, the holding company changed its name to Edison International to reflect the overseas expansion that was begun during this decade. Edison was also busy snapping up other power properties in the U.S. In 1999, Edison Mission Energy beefed up its portfolio with 12 plants in Illinois and one in western Pennsylvania. It set up Midwest Generation as a subsidiary to manage these new acquisitions, along with $500 million in projects aimed at reducing air pollutant emissions at these facilities. Midwest Generation alone claims assets of $7 billion and employs 1,450 workers. The same year, Edison also bought into the largest wind


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energy project in the U.S.-just one of several renewable resource projects it’s been engaged in since 1980.

Sun sets in the West Having such a diverse portfolio helped Edison get through two radical shifts in California’s energy industry. First came the deregulation of the market in 1996. The state’s energy costs were 50 percent higher than the national average, straining large local businesses and causing some to flee. The state decided to move electric utilities to an open marketplace in an attempt to lower costs. SCE, like other utilities, lobbied hard for the switch. Because they were now prohibited from monopolistically producing and supplying electricity, SCE and the other utilities had to freeze rates until they sold off some of the their generating and transmission facilities and other assets. But instead of dropping, wholesale prices soared. For Edison and the other utilities, the price of doing business shot up, while the rate they were allowed to charge customers remained fixed. So because they couldn’t pass on higher costs to consumers, the utilities got stuck with the financial burden. By October 1999, Edison was reportedly defying the sluggishness that had overcome other utilities. Normally conservative about the kinds of projections it makes, the company was coming out with bold growth projections, which were based not on SCE’s earnings, but on the parent company’s other investments, Edison Mission Energy and Edison Capital. Since these subsidiaries had already been set up a decade before, Edison was in a position to surge ahead of other utility companies. Those competitors had not thought of diversifying until the new, unregulated market put their main product up for grabs.

Lightning strikes... Less than a year later, though, the industry’s frozen rates started to take a toll. Although demand skyrocketed, rates still had to remain flat. On one scorching day in June, rolling blackouts hit 97,000 customers (not Edison’s) near San Francisco. In August, (former) Governor Gray Davis alleged that companies could have been manipulating power prices and called for an investigation (Edison was not found to be one of the perpetrators). By December 2000, with California facing its largest electricity shortage ever, the U.S. Energy Secretary issued an emergency order for out-of-state energy suppliers to sell to the beleaguered state. Investors grumbled, and Edison’s stock stalled. Rumors of a government bailout for utilities had already begun. In the third quarter of 2000, Edison performed worse 96

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than any other company on the S&P utility index. CEO John Bryson’s compensation was $1.04 million-less than half what it had been the year before. SCE sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), alleging that the commission failed to make sure wholesale electricity was sold at reasonable rates. The company also announced that it had run out of cash and couldn’t pay back $596 million it owed to creditors. Its credit rating, along with the credit rating of its main competitor, Pacific Gas & Electric, was downgraded to “low junk” status in January 2001. That same month, regular rolling blackouts began. Hundreds of millions of dollars in public money was freed up by emergency legislation to buy power, and in February, the state legislature approved a $10 billion power-purchasing plan to try to avoid more blackouts. In the same month, Governor Davis struck an agreement with SCE to buy $2.7 billion worth of transmission lines in an attempt to save it from bankruptcy. In return, Edison was to produce cheap power to sell to the state for the next decade. Neither of the other two largest suppliers could reach a similar deal with Davis.

...twice But hapless Californians still weren’t in the clear. After half of the state’s alternative power generators closed down unexpectedly, rolling blackouts were again ordered. With its headquarters in Rosemead, Calif., Edison International could hardly escape the fallout. But while Pacific Gas & Electric-the largest supplier in the state (SCE is the second largest)-filed for bankruptcy in April 2001 and is now undergoing reorganization, SCE struck a deal with the California Public Utilities Commission in October. The settlement allowed SCE to institute a controversial surcharge to its customers, ultimately helping the utility recover $3.6 billion that it owed the state for the power it had purchased elsewhere for Edison’s customers during the crisis. After the company forecasted it would recover the entire sum by mid-2003, it was able to drop rates by 8 to 19 percent on August 1 of that year. But even that move was disputed. TURN, The Utility Reform Network, a California consumer-advocacy group, filed a federal suit seeking to block the deal. TURN’s suit claimed that deregulation rules don’t allow utilities to charge for debts, only for ongoing energy costs. Edison won out when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately approved the settlement in December 2003.


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Recovery Edison International didn’t die, but it did suffer serious blows. It had to sell $800 million in bonds in July 2001 to refinance its gigantic bank debt and stay out of bankruptcy. After the crisis, the company shifted focus. It has steered clear of making new investments, instead building liquidity, paying down debt and managing its existing portfolio. To help with debts, it sold off some of its assets. With big sales and good management, the company says it has paid down all its debt maturities on time while simultaneously drumming up nearly $500 million in cash by the end of 2002. In January 2004, one of Edison Mission Energy’s subsidiaries sold all of its Edison Mission Energy Oil & Gas stock for $100 million. And SCE announced the same month that it might have to increase its rates by 3 percent in February to pay $2.06 billion to the state in 2004. Still, the renewed focus seems to be paying off. Edison International recorded earnings of $1.1 billion in 2002, up from $1.0 billion in 2001. After coming close to the brink, Edison ricocheted back to financial health faster than anyone expected-and faster than its competitors. Sure, an influx of taxpayer money helped, but so did its diverse portfolio, savvy politicking and strong leadership.

Head honcho Through it all has been Edison International’s CEO, John Bryson. He may have a baby face, but it’s framed by white, wavy hair. Bryson could challenge the die-hard environmentalists’ assertion that a truly green heart can’t reside in the chest of a power producer. In 1970, after graduating from Stanford and then Yale Law School, he co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the main nonprofit, environmental lobbying and advocacy groups in the country. He worked for years as a public servant before going on to stints as chairman of the California Water Resources Control Board and president of the state’s Public Utilities Commission. That kind of commitment – and the connections that come with it-could be what helped him negotiate deals after the crisis.

Beyond SCE His other connections may also come in handy. In 1997, his company agreed to renovate and then sponsor baseball’s Anaheim Stadium, home to the Angels, for the next 20 years-it now carries the moniker Edison International Field. Bryson also serves on the board of Disney.

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Meanwhile, Edison Capital has steadily invested in affordable housing developments, telecommunications and transportation, as well as infrastructure projects like electric transmission and distribution and power generation.

Next steps In moving forward, Edison International has ruffled some feathers. The company wants to create an unregulated subsidiary to purchase a large, unfinished 1,054megawatt power plant 60 miles east of L.A. It would complete construction to the tune of $705 million. Edison’s subsidiary would then sell off the electricity output to Edison for the next 30 years, a long agreement which would be subject to limited review by regulators. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has shown increasing concern with similar deals, which have been approved in other states. Edison’s rivals fear they’d be shut out, rendered incapable of providing equally low-cost power to consumers. They say utility companies that cut such deals will be able to starve existing power generators and then buy them up at reduced prices. But by late January 2004, Edison’s proposal had already been approved by state legislators and was under review by the commission.

GETTING HIRED

Resume sticklers Looking for work with Edison takes a little preparation. The company scans all the resumes it receives and stores them for a year, so it’s pretty particular about format. A “resume tips” page in the career section of the company’s web site lays out the parameters, from the recommended type of paper and fonts (Times or Courier) to advice on what not to do (steer clear of graphics, boxes, and two-column formats, for example). There’s also useful, detailed advice about inserting key words into your resume, so that managers and recruiters scanning Edison’s database will notice your dossier. The range of positions available at Edison is vast. Currently, it employs just over 15,000 workers. Standard fields like administrative, financial, customer service, engineering, information technology, marketing and sales join other areas like


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nuclear, skilled craft (everything from security officers to physicians and power plant mechanics) and professional.

Diversity counts Minorities tend to fair well at SCE: almost half of all new hires are ethnic minorities, as is 44 percent of the existing work force and almost a third of senior officials, managers and high-level professionals. For the sixth year in a row, SCE ranked in the top tier of Fortune magazine’s top 50 companies for ethnic minorities, having landed in sixth position on the latest list. Focusing on diversity among suppliers as well, it ranked in the top five for spending with minority-owned vendors. Since 1999, it has also won other diversity accolades from Latino and Asian-American magazines and a women’s organization.

Internships and beyond Edison’s internships, called the “college relations program,” are for undergraduates and post-grads alike. There’s a part-time program, which requires simultaneous parttime enrollment in school, and also a summer hire program, which lets students return to class work in the fall. The company says it hires full-time employees from its college relations spots. The deadline for the program is March 31 each year. The company places a strong emphasis on volunteerism, recognizing good works with its Halo Heroes program. There are a lot of volunteers to choose from: 1,200 Edison employees donated their time to 50 community projects in 38 California cities through “Follow Your Heart” projects, including fundraisers for leukemia treatment and research and food and clothing drives for low-income families. In 2002-2003, employees gave a total of $3.2 million to charitable causes.

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Exelon Corporation 10 S. Dearborn St., 37th Floor Chicago, IL 60680-5379 Phone: (312) 394-7398 Fax: (312) 394-7945 www.exeloncorp.com

THE STATS

LOCATIONS

Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: EXC Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman and CEO: John W. Rowe 2003 Employees: 20,000 2003 Revenue: $15,812

Chicago, IL (HQ) Philadelphia, PA

KEY COMPETITORS

DEPARTMENTS Accounting Customer Service Energy Delivery Engineering Finance Information Technology Legal

Ameren Dynegy PPL

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.exeloncorp.com/careers


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Exelon Corporation

THE SCOOP

A tale of two ulitities In October 2000, Chicago’s Unicom Corporation and Philadelphia’s PECO Energy Company merged, forming one of America’s largest energy suppliers: Exelon Corporation. With almost five million customers in those two cities, Exelon’s core operation remains the delivery of electricity and natural gas. However, Exelon also has major stakes in electricity generation, specialized heating and cooling systems, venture capital, energy trading, and energy consulting. Organizationally, Exelon, like most modern utility providers, could be likened to a tree with many branches that extend far and wide. But unlike most energy companies, Exelon is showing signs of long-term profitability.

A finger in every pie Exelon is divided into four units: three business units and one to oversee operations. Exelon Energy Delivery is a major electricity supplier in Chicago, as well as a major supplier of both electricity and natural gas in Philadelphia. Operating in these cities under its old names (Unicom and PECO, respectively), EED provides a full range of services: infrastructure development and maintenance, customer service, emergency repair, and billing and account management. Cost-efficiency is the name of the game for EED now that a combination of recent regulatory changes has eliminated other opportunities for big profit making. Illinois and Pennsylvania have instituted temporary, but long-term (read: several years) rate freezes on electricity, reducing Exelon’s future returns, particularly when inflation is taken into account. Meanwhile, deregulation in the electricity market has seen the competition for customers heat up – with the added effect of reducing rate industry-wide. Deregulation has, however, also allowed Exelon to rapidly expand its electricity generation and sales numbers. Exelon Generation, the division in charge of these operations, “has access” (to quote the company web site) to more than 48,000 megawatts at a given time. Some of the juice comes from Exelon’s own generating facilities, which includes America’s largest fleet of nuclear power plants – 17 reactors on 10 sites – and some of it comes from other suppliers with whom Exelon has contracts, or in which it has invested heavily. Whatever the source, Exelon Generation is responsible for getting the electricity where it is needed, when it is needed, and they appear to be doing it well: At just over three years old, the unit is

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already among the five largest energy suppliers in the country, with customers everywhere except the Northwest. Exelon Enterprises is the catch-all name under which the company’s numerous side projects are grouped. Among them: Exelon Capital Partners, essentially a provider of venture capital to emerging businesses; Exelon Solutions, a consulting firm specializing in reducing energy costs for businesses and government organizations; Exelon Services, which integrates energy delivery with construction and technology for big corporations; and PECOAdelphia, a voice and data communications carrier based in Philadelphia. Overseeing all these interests is Exelon Business Services Company, which provides for the financial, supply, HR, IT, audio visual and legal needs of the entire operation. EBSC gets only a single line on the “About Us” section of Exelon’s web page – surely less than the manager of the $15 billion behemoth that is Exelon deserves.

Remember the company mantra Deregulation has greatly increased competition among energy providers, cutting profit margins severely. The result? Everyone’s focused on cutting costs and increasing efficiency. At Exelon headquarters, a new mantra echoes in the halls: Energize! Centralize! Optimize! Emphasize! Maximize! (We added the exclamation points, but make no mistake, to Exelon, this is serious business.) Behind the high-energy slogan, there appears to be a genuine (and highly effective) effort to unify and revitalize the company. Here’s a rundown of the sentiment behind the catchphrase. Energize: Jolt employees to action with new initiatives and the threat of layoffs. Centralize: Run all operations through the same channels, and make sure someone’s keeping an eye on the big picture. Optimize: Cut costs, and if need be, jobs. (Need was found: Exelon dropped 20 percent of its workforce in 2003, mostly from management; another 1,900 jobs, or around 10 percent of the company’s total, will go in staged layoffs over two years.) Emphasize: Focus on core issues, which at Exelon include outstanding customer service and reliable energy delivery. Maximize: get the most from your workers, enter the most profitable markets and exit those that are unprofitable. Don’t be sentimental about it. Exelon chairman John W. Rowe chose Oliver Kingsley, COO, to lead the efficiency drive, known as The Exelon Way. Since its beginning in April 2003, the project has realized more than $170 million in unforeseen savings – quick work, with, it appears, more benefits to come.


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On the rebound Since withdrawing its bid to purchase Illinois Power in late 2003, Exelon has announced several new ventures. It is one of seven companies to file preliminary papers concerning the proposed construction of a new nuclear power plant – the first such proposal in 30 years in this country. The company also sold its thermal technologies unit to an Australian firm in December. Most importantly, Exelon has received preliminary approval to link several of its subsidiary power companies to the PJM regional transmission organization – the major electricity carrier in the Midwest, a potentially huge new market for Exelon power. The company’s stock rose to nearly $69 after starting 2003 closer to $48, and its quick rise could be taken as a sign of investor confidence that the company has weathered the storm that nearly sank the energy industry after the Enron disaster. In the spring of 2004, Exelon instituted a 2-for-1 stock split; as of October 2004, the stock was trading at close to $38. Post-Enron accounting changes appear, on paper, to have hurt the company’s dividends and its net income, but in both cases Exelon’s performance is in the top quartile for the industry. Revenue continues to rise steadily, and with over $41 billion in assets, the company can afford to invest in its own future.

GETTING HIRED

Jobseekers: keep plugging away With the all the cost-cutting and downsizing going on at Exelon, getting hired may be difficult over the next several years; but some positions will surely open up. The company looks for top people from numerous fields: engineering, software development (to help run those supply systems better), law, finance, accounting, information technology, public relations, and, of course, management. Exelon also recruits on campus at the major business and engineering schools. Exelon has been expandeding its outreach to minority and women suppliers. The move is typical of the company’s efforts to promote equality and diversity in its workforce, which also include the sponsorship of business seminars aimed at minorities.

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Exxon Mobil Corp. 5959 Las Colinas Blvd. Irving, TX 75039-2298 Phone: (972) 444-1000 Fax: (972) 444-1350 www.exxonmobil.com

LOCATIONS Irving, TX (HQ) Clinton, NJ Houston, TX New Orleans, LA

DEPARTMENTS Business Computer Science/MIS Engineering Geosciences Human Resources Law Public Affairs Science and Technology

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: XOM Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman & CEO: Lee R. Raymond 2003 Employees: 88,300 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $213,199

KEY COMPETITORS BP ChevronTexaco Royal Dutch/Shell Group

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.exxonmobil.com/careers/


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Exxon Mobile Corp.

THE SCOOP

Big oil When Exxon and Mobil merged in 1999, they created one Texas-sized oil company. Irving-based ExxonMobil, as the new company is known, is the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world. It owns proven reserves of 11.8 billion barrels of oil, 55.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, a refining capacity of 5.5 million barrels per day and a global distribution network that reaches 118 countries. ExxonMobil is also a major producer of petrochemicals and an owner of electric power generation interests. The company’s 2003 revenue of $246 billion exceeded the gross domestic product of the entire country of Turkey, and it ranked 45th in the United Nations’ listing of the top 100 economic entities in 2000 – the highest ranking awarded to a corporation.

Drilling for dollars ExxonMobil conducts its exploration and production, also known as upstream, activities in over 40 different countries around the world. Established production sites are located in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, Alaska and eastern Canada. New discoveries in the Caspian Sea region, in West Africa and off the South American coast have added to the company’s reserves and are just beginning to ramp up its production. ExxonMobil is a leader in deepwater operations, owning at least a partial interest in 51 deepwater drilling platforms. In 2003, for the 10th consecutive year, new resource discoveries exceeded production, yielding a net replacement rate of over 100 percent. Refining operations take place in dozens of locations, with the largest facilities in Texas, Louisiana, Japan, Singapore, France, England, Belgium and the Netherlands. The company’s gasoline is marketed under both the Exxon and Mobil brands in the United States and as Esso fuel abroad. In addition to gasoline, ExxonMobil also produces heating oil, kerosene, jet fuel and diesel oil at its refineries. There are more than 40,000 retail service stations selling ExxonMobil products worldwide.

What taxman? ExxonMobil has divested itself of some of its non-core businesses over the past couple of years, but it remains a major producer of petrochemicals, plastics, paints and synthetic rubber through its ExxonMobil Chemical subsidiary. In February 2002, the company sold its 50 percent stake in a Colombian coal mine. Later that 106

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same year, its Chilean copper mining subsidiary, Disputada de las Condes, was sold to Anglo American PLC for $1.3 billion. The copper mine sale generated some controversy within Chile when it was revealed that ExxonMobil had never paid any income tax on the mine during its 25 years of ownership. The company claimed that following large capital investments in the facility, it never managed to turn a profit. In addition, the deal was transacted offshore to avoid payment of Chilean capital gains taxes. Despite protests and threatened legal action on the part of some Chilean legislators, the deal with Anglo American was completed in November 2002. The company also sold its interests in oil and gas fields in Texas and New Mexico and in undeveloped Canadian exploration property for $385 million in May 2004. Under the agreement, ExxonMobil transfered its stakes in 28 mature oil and gas fields in West Texas and New Mexico to Apache Corp., although ExxonMobil will retain a stake in the properties.

International deals In December 2003, the company said that it had signed an agreement with SevenEleven Japan Co. Ltd. to begin selling gasoline at 10 convenience stores in the Tokyo area, beginning in January 2004, and plans to expand the self-serve pumps later in 2004 and early 2005. Then, in August 2004, ExxonMobil and Venezuela’s state oil company signed a preliminary agreement to build a plastics plant that could cost up to $3 billion and increase Venezuela’s petrochemical production by 10 percent. Venezuela, which is a member of OPEC, is the fourth-largest crude supplier to the United States, behind Saudi Arabia, Canada and Mexico. The agreement between ExxonMobil and Petroleos de Venezuela SA’s Pequiven petrochemical unit came after nine years of talks and studies, according to the companies. ExxonMobil and Pequiven each will have 49 percent stake in the plant, with 2 percent reserved for the project’s financiers. The plant has been under study since 1996 but the project was pushed back because of profitability and financing concerns, along with Exxon’s 1999 merger with Mobil.

Lingering effects of the Valdez In 1989, the Exxon oil tanker Valdez ran aground in the Prince William Sound off the coast of Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of oil into the water. The oil spill contaminated 1,500 miles of Alaskan coastline and will likely go down as one of the most widely remembered industrial accidents in U.S. history. The company was fined $25 million by the government and spent billions more cleaning up the mess.


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Exxon was subsequently sued by a group of fishermen and local residents and found liable for $5 billion in punitive damages in 1994. In 2001, that judgment was overturned on appeal. Finally, in January 2004, a federal court in Alaska ordered the company to pay about $4.5 billion in punitive damages, plus $2.25 billion in interest to victims of the spill.

Boss Raymond – an old-fashioned oilman ExxonMobil’s CEO Lee Raymond has been given much of the credit for successfully integrating the two companies. Raymond holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and has been with the company for his entire career. He became Exxon’s CEO in 1993 and held on to the top spot following the merger with Mobil. Yet Raymond is perhaps as well known for his blunt and outspoken opinions as for his business acumen. Despite other oil companies’ well-publicized research into alternative energy sources – BP and Shell being the most conspicuous – Raymond has steadfastly refused to even pay lip service to the “hydrogen economy.” In a profile in The Economist in March 2003, Raymond dismisses renewable energy as “a complete waste of money” and says that President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s embrace of the new technology demonstrates that they “just don’t know what they are talking about.” Further, he asserts that global warming is a sham and that scientists’ dire warnings are motivated solely by a desire to secure lucrative government research grants. Clearly, Raymond is a controversial and polarizing figure. He may have no shortage of enemies, but he has his fair share of admirers as well. Industry analysts and Wall Street investors praise Raymond for imposing financial discipline on the company, and ExxonMobil’s return on capital has consistently been higher than its rivals during his tenure as boss. A Morgan Stanley representative is quoted in the same Economist piece saying that Raymond is “one of the most astute chairmen/CEOs in all of industry.” Of course, Raymond can’t stick around forever. His likely successor is Rex Tillerson, who was named president of the company in February 2004. Tillerson, 51, has been a senior vice president at the company since August 2001, and first joined Exxon in 1975 as a production engineer.

Thirsty for more oil By virtue of its enormous size, ExxonMobil faces the daunting challenge of discovering massive amounts of oil each year just to replace whatever it sells. Traditionally, most of the company’s production has been centered in North America

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and the North Sea. These oil fields, however, have been pumped for years and are now considered to be in decline. As a result, ExxonMobil has stepped up its oil exploration efforts in new locations overseas. In March 2003, ExxonMobil announced a major natural gas discovery in the Jansz field off the northwest coast of Australia. Initial estimates put the likely reserves at around 20 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. An oil discovery in a deepwater location off the coast of Angola was announced in June 2003. Meanwhile, the company announced in February 2003 that construction had begun at another offshore Angolan location for a $3 billion facility. The platform, dubbed “Kizomba B,” is expected to recover one billion barrels of oil over its lifespan. Finally, 2003 also saw production come on-line at several new ExxonMobil facilities including the Yoho oil platform off the coast of Nigeria and the Bintang natural gas fields in the South China Sea. In August 2004, the company announced that it had signed a deal to search for oil off Colombia’s coast, marking the U.S. oil company’s return to exploration in the Latin American country after 11 years. Add to this the fact that the vast oilfields of Libya have recently been opened to international markets, and Exxon has another potentially lucrative market to explore.

Tengiz troubles In April 2003, Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Neiman announced that ExxonMobil was under investigation in a bribery probe related to oil contracts in Kazakhstan. Government investigators are trying to determine whether Mobil was involved in a scheme to transfer $78 million from American and European oil companies to Swiss bank accounts belonging to high Kazakh officials, including the president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. The contracts for the Tengiz oilfield, eventually secured by a consortium of six Western oil companies, are worth an estimated $1 billion. The alleged payments occurred prior to the merger between Exxon and Mobil. The investigation is being conducted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which forbids U.S. citizens from bribing foreign officials. Two Americans have been indicted so far in the probe on charges of conspiracy, tax evasion and money laundering. Bryan Williams, a former Mobil executive, plead guilty to tax evasion in June 2003. Williams admitted that he failed to report $7 million in income. The unreported payments allegedly include $2 million in kickbacks he received from Kazakh sources. James Giffen, head of the Mercator Corporation and an oil consultant employed by the Kazakh government, has proclaimed his innocence and still faces pending charges. Representatives of ExxonMobil deny that the company had any knowledge of illegal payments made by current or former Mobil employees. As of August 2004, the case still had not been fully resolved. Visit the Vault Consulting Career Channel at consulting.vault.com – with insider firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Consulting Job Board and more.

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In other legal news, Exxon was ordered to pay $3.5 billion in punitive damages to the state of Alabama in March 2004. While the amount is certainly nothing to sneeze at, it could actually be considered good news for the company. The award was a reduction from the original jury award of $11.8 billion in a lawsuit involving natural gas royalties. Two weeks prior to the court’s ruling, a circuit court refused to order a new trial over the jury verdict issued in November 2003, in which the jury had approved an $11.9 billion award for the state – $63 million in compensatory damages and $11.8 billion in punitive damages. The award stems from a suit the state of Alabama filed against Exxon in 1999 alleging that Exxon defrauded it out of natural gas royalties.

GETTING HIRED

The way in ExxonMobil offers employment opportunities in 200 countries and territories around the world. The company’s web site lists contact information for each country but also warns that candidates must have work permits for overseas posts. U.S. positions are mostly based in Texas, Louisiana, California and New Jersey. Positions are organized into eight main departments: engineering, geoscience, business, public affairs, science and technology, human resources, law and computer science. Detailed information about career paths, locations and position requirements are available from the ExxonMobil U.S. employment web site.

Students: gas up your career The company also offers internships and co-op opportunities for college students and recruits for its entry-level positions from this pool. Summer internships generally last for three to four months, but longer internships and/or co-op positions are available at other times of the year as well. The company does conduct on-campus recruiting, so students should check with their career development offices to see if ExxonMobil representatives will be visiting their college.

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OUR SURVEY SAYS

An age-old culture? The reviews of ExxonMobil are mixed. While most call it “a first-class company” and “an excellent experience,” quite a few employees say the company is bureaucractic. "[ExxonMobil] is a large company – with some of the negatives associated with that – structure, standards, hierarchy,” one source says. Another employee is less kind, citing “a Cro-Magnon culture – everything comes from the top down. There is no entrepreneurial spirit, no one is given any responsibility, everyone works at the bosses’ whims [and] most things seem to be micro-managed.” Most agree that ExxonMobil might not be for everyone. “If you’re the sort of person who has a burning desire to own and run her own business, [the company’s] size and bureaucracy would drive you up the wall,” an insider says.

Excellent benefits But the advantages of working for a moneymaking behemoth like Exxon Mobil are there, too. It’s “large enough to have opportunities,” has a “good reputation for management development,” and has “competitive pay” with “good benefits.” These benefits include disability and life insurance, company subsidized medical and dental plans, a pension plan, a retirement savings program with matching company contributions, and a 3-to-1 gift matching program for university donations. Says an insider: "[Exxon Mobil] has a great matching 401(k) where if you put 6 percent of your salary in, they’ll match it with another 6 percent, 7 percent if you invest in [company] stock. The catch is, you only get to keep the matching part if you work there for at least five years.” ExxonMobil employees are eligible for one week of vacation after six months, and the company also pays for moving expenses and gives other relocation assistance. “You’ll get two weeks vacation to start, three weeks after your fifth year,” a contact says. For the male-dominated oil industry, insiders claim that ExxonMobil has a “great diversity record.” The company is also a leader in providing childcare for the children of its employees. In Houston, ExxonMobil has spearheaded a group of 28 companies that has spent $3.4 million to fund after-school care.

Getting in the door Like many large companies, ExxonMobil can afford to make the most of its screening process, weeding out lesser candidates by making the path to employment Visit the Vault Consulting Career Channel at consulting.vault.com – with insider firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Consulting Job Board and more.

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“long and difficult,” according to one insider. The respondent describes the recruitment process: “First, you are interviewed on campus. A couple of months later if you pass that interview, they bring you to Texas and keep you out late the night before during a ‘dinner interview.’ The next morning, you start early and proceed through three interviews on the same day.”

Moving up and staying in If you can play the bureaucracy game right, there are opportunities for advancement. “If you are sharp and your people skills are good, you should progress easily,” an insider says. The downside of this, according to one employee, is that “management absolutely and totally controls the employee.” In regard to the review process, the insider says, “if your boss doesn’t go to bat for you, then you can almost rest assured that you will be [poorly ranked]. It doesn’t matter how well you do your assignments, most of it depends on whether or not your boss has a spine.” Sources report the culture is “very conservative,” with no dress-down Fridays or businesscasual attire. Says a source, “Dresses and suits are pretty much standard.” In terms of hours, they seem to “vary by location” but insiders say to expect to work 50 to 60 hours a week. “I’d ask your department of interest directly, because there is no norm for this,” a contact says. One of the company’s financial analysts says the hours are “extremely long.”

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FirstEnergy Corp. 76 S. Main St. Akron, OH 44308 Phone: (800) 646-0400 Fax: (330) 84-3866 www.firstenergycorp.com

LOCATIONS Akron, OH (HQ) Pennsylvania New Jersey Ohio

DEPARTMENTS Administrative Business/Finance/Accounting Clerical Energy Delivery Engineering Human Resources Information Technology Journeyman Lineworker Legal Meter Reader Nuclear/Plant Supervisory Technical Operations

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: FE Stock Exchange: NYSE President, CEO, and Director: Anthony J. Alexander 2003 Employees: 15,905 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $12,307

KEY COMPETITORS Allegheny Energy Dominion Resources PSEG

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.firstenergycorp.com/employment


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers FirstEnergy Corp.

THE SCOOP

Lighting the way Ohio-based FirstEnergy is the fifth largest investor-owned utility company in the United States, delivering energy to a 36,000 square-mile service area across three states. In its present form, the company is a relatively recent phenomenon. Two major mergers since the late 1990s have transformed the former Ohio Edison into FirstEnergy. Along the way, the company has also expanded beyond its traditional core electric utility operations to offer natural gas service, unregulated power generation for the competitive electric market and energy management services. Unfortunately for FirstEnergy, however, the company has recently been making headlines more for its mishaps than for its accomplishments. The shutdown of one of its nuclear reactors due to safety lapses in early 2002 was followed by the August 2003 Northeast blackout. A government investigation into the power failure blamed FirstEnergy (among others) for failing to take actions that could have prevented the disaster. Tragedy, too, has struck the company as CEO H. Peter Burg succumbed to leukemia in January 2004. With Anthony Alexander – Burg’s former right-hand man – assuming leadership of the company, FirstEnergy is planning for brighter days in its future.

The FirstEnergy family The backbone of FirstEnergy’s business is its seven subsidiary electric utility companies: Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., Pennsylvania Power Co. (Penn Power), Toledo Edison, Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L), Metropolitan Edison (Met Ed), and Pennsylvania Electric Co. (Penelec). Through these utilities, the company serves more than 4.4 million customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In all, the FirstEnergy system has a total generating capacity of 13,000 megawatts, powered primarily by coal and nuclear fuel. The rest of FirstEnergy’s business is conducted through its unregulated subsidiary companies. American Transmission Systems, formed in 1998 following deregulation of the electricity market, owns all of FirstEnergy’s long-distance power lines. FirstEnergy Solutions operates all of the company’s generating facilities, sells power to the deregulated electric market and provides HVAC installation services. Other notable subsidiaries include natural gas pipeline company Marbel Energy, telecom provider FirstCommunications and the MYR Group, a holding company that owns 19 subsidiary construction firms. 114

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A rust-belt dynamo The earliest predecessor to the modern-day FirstEnergy Corporation – the Akron Electric Light and Power Company – was founded in 1893. Six years later, that company was acquired by the Akron Traction and Electric Company, and the combined business was re-named Northern Ohio Power and Light. In 1930, Northern Ohio was itself acquired by Commonwealth and Southern, which merged it with four of its other utility subsidiaries to form Ohio Edison. The Public Utilities Holding Company Act of 1935 precipitated a restructuring within the electric industry, and to comply with the law’s requirements, Commonwealth and Southern was obliged to sell off Ohio Edison in 1949. Having gained its independence, Ohio Edison went out and acquired rival utility company Ohio Public Service the following year. During the 1960s, the company expanded its generating capacity to meet the energy demands of the power-hungry industrial belt of northern Ohio. Eventually, Ohio Edison turned to nuclear power, building three high-capacity nuclear reactors. The first, the Beaver Valley reactor in western Pennsylvania, was completed in 1976. Ten years later, a second reactor at the same site, as well as the Perry nuclear reactor in Lake County, Ohio (near Cleveland), came on line.

Electrifying growth The onset of deregulation in the electricity market in the 1990s turned the traditionally staid utility industry on its head. There was a spate of mergers and acquisitions industry-wide, and Ohio Edison was no exception. The company’s first major move came in 1997 when it acquired Centerior Energy for $1.5 billion. Centerior had been the parent company of Toledo Edison and Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. Following the completion of the deal, the combined company assumed the new name of FirstEnergy. A flurry of activity followed over the next few years. The company acquired a number of electrical contracting and construction companies in 1997 and ‘98, including Roth Brothers, Colonial Mechanical, Elliott-Lewis and RPC Mechanical. FirstEnergy also moved into the natural gas business for the first time through its purchase of Marbel Energy, a gas pipeline company, in 1998. The company’s most recent – and most dramatic – move, however, was its 2001 merger with GPU. The $12 billion deal added Met Ed, JCP&L and Penelec to FirstEnergy’s stable of utilities and nearly doubled its customer base. GPU also brought with it a number of overseas holdings that FirstEnergy eventually sold or spun off. These included Australian gas utility GasNet, British utility company


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Midlands Electricity, Argentinean firm Emdersa and several power plants in Latin America, Europe and Asia.

A hole in the head The first signs of trouble at FirstEnergy appeared in March 2002, when the DavisBesse nuclear reactor was shut down for safety reasons. The reactor, located in Oak Harbor, Ohio, generates 883 megawatts of power (7 percent of FirstEnergy’s total capacity). In what has been described as the nuclear energy industry’s most serious safety lapse since the 1979 partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, inspectors found a football sized hole in the wall of the reactor’s vessel head. Leaking boric acid had corroded the six-inch-thick carbon steel walls of the reactor head, leaving just the 3/16-inch-thick stainless steel lining separating the reactor vessel from the outside world. Inspectors found that the lining – which was not designed to withstand the highly pressurized environment of the reactor on its own – had begun to bow outwards. Fortunately, however, it held, and there was no release of radioactive contamination. The plant was immediately shutdown. After nearly two years of repair work and an overhaul of the plant’s management and personnel, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) gave FirstEnergy the go-ahead to restart Davis-Besse at the beginning of March 2004. By the end of the month, the plant was back on the grid.

In the dark The company’s woes continued in August 2003 when a catastrophic electric grid failure blacked out more than 50 million people across the northeastern United States and Ontario, Canada. FirstEnergy received harsh criticism from government investigators in both their November 2003 interim report and April 2004 final report (though the final document did spread the blame among a few other parties as well). The investigation discovered that the blackout began when trees came into contact with some of FirstEnergy’s high-voltage power lines in the Cleveland area, creating a short circuit. In the judgment of the investigators, if the company’s grid operators had been able to free up just 1,500 megawatts of power (by cutting power in areas around Cleveland and Akron), the cascading failure could have been averted. FirstEnergy began developing problems in its transmission system as early as 3 p.m. on August 14 – more than an hour before the blackout began. Instead, FirstEnergy’s system remained connected to the grid and exported its instability to other regions, creating the massive outage. The report blamed FirstEnergy for inadequate computer monitoring of its transmission system, for insufficiently training employees to handle 116

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the crisis, for failing to alert other power companies of its developing problems and for not trimming the trees near its power line corridors. While accepting some of the criticism and acknowledging that their grid monitoring software was ineffective, FirstEnergy disputed some of the investigators’ findings. The company complained that the report ignored the stress placed on the system by long-distance power transactions. On the day of the blackout, large amounts of energy were being sent through the company’s transmission system from southern Ohio to Ontario, and FirstEnergy officials disputed the notion that it should have to cut off its local customers to accommodate these types of transactions. Although it did not agree with every finding in the report, FirstEnergy was eager to make sure that something as easy to remedy as a few lengthy tree branches didn’t contribute to another catastrophic power outage. So, the company embarked on a major tree-clearing project. But even for a project so seemingly simple wasn’t destined to go off without a hitch – a couple in a Cleveland suburb got a restraining order against the utility when it planned to cut down a tree in the couple’s yard that was deemed to be too close to the power lines. A two-day hearing on the matter was concluded at the end of August, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. But no news of the decision was available as of this writing.

Trimming payroll Following its merger with GPU, FirstEnergy announced a restructuring plan in September 2002 intended to save $135 million per year. At the time of the announcement, the company revealed that it would be laying off 350 workers (approximately 2.5 percent of its workforce). Since then, other job cuts have followed. In October 2003, FirstEnergy eliminated 220 more jobs, primarily from its information technology department. The company explained that the IT job cuts stemmed from “redundancies” created by the GPU merger. In January 2004, FirstEnergy decided to close down its 22 walk-in bill payment offices in Ohio, resulting in 150 additional job losses. And in what was described by the Toledo Blade as a “final step” in the company’s reorganization plan, FirstEnergy eliminated 205 jobs at its three nuclear plants in August 2004.

Money matters In many ways, 2003 was a difficult year for FirstEnergy, and those troubles extended to the financial realm as well. Though the company did post net earnings of $423 million ($1.39 per share) on $12.3 billion in revenue, those results fell far short of


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what FirstEnergy was hoping for. In fact, 2003 marked the first year since its incentive program was started in 1997 that the company did not issue any employee bonuses. FirstEnergy representatives stated that the bonuses – estimated to be worth around $51 million company-wide – are contingent upon the company earning more than its $1.50-per-share annual dividend. There were signs of light amid the gloom, however. Revenue was up in 2003, and excluding one-time charges, the company would have earned $736 million ($2.41 per share). Alas, those one-time expenses added up, with repairs, replacement power and lost revenue related to the Davis-Besse situation accounting for $289 million alone. Other charges included blackout-related expenses, higher pension costs, a downgrading of FirstEnergy’s corporate debt rating (which results in higher borrowing costs) and the divestiture of some South American assets. Davis-Besse was by far the biggest drag on earnings though. Combined with the $300 million spent by FirstEnergy in 2002, the total cost over two years to rehabilitate the plant came to nearly $600 million. With Davis-Besse back online, FirstEnergy is looking forward to better results in 2004. For the full year, the company expects earnings to come in between $2.70 and $2.85 per share. In addition, FirstEnergy plans to retire more than $1 billion in corporate debt in an effort to upgrade its bond rating from its current “junk” status.

Mourning a leader Sadly, FirstEnergy began 2004 with a new CEO at the helm of the company. Former head H. Peter Burg died from leukemia in January 2004, just one month after being diagnosed with the disease. Anthony Alexander, who had served as COO of the company under Burg, was named interim CEO when his boss left for medical leave in December. One day after Burg’s funeral, the FirstEnergy board named Alexander the permanent CEO. Burg and Alexander – both Akron natives and lifelong FirstEnergy employees – were reportedly close friends, and Alexander is not expected to make any radical changes to the company’s strategy. Burg was known for his civic contributions to Akron, including his work with the local chapters of the United Way and American Red Cross, as well as local economic development groups. After Alexander assumed the top spot, FirstEnergy began an executive search for a new COO and named Richard R. Grigg, formerly of Wisconsin Energy Corp. to the position in July 2004.

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A merger in the future? A number of notable changes to FirstEnergy’s corporate charter in early 2004 fueled rumors that the company may be preparing for a possible merger or acquisition. First the company opted to dissolve its “poison pill” takeover defense. A poison pill plan typically involves diluting a company’s equity through the issuance of new shares; this strategy is intended to discourage unsolicited or hostile takeover attempts by making it more difficult for an investor to acquire a controlling interest in the company. Next, the company announced two proposals that will be voted on at the company’s 2004 annual shareholders meeting. If passed, the resolutions would lower the “supermajority” requirement from 80 percent to 67 percent and would reduce directors’ terms from three years to one year. Both of these provisions would lower barriers to a successful merger. Finally, FirstEnergy announced that it was boosting CEO Alexander’s “golden parachute” severance package. Though the company’s large debt load might diminish its attractiveness as a takeover target to many, industry experts opined that a merger was not out of the question. Exelon and Dominion have been named in some news reports as possible suitors.

GETTING HIRED

Energizing opportunities Based in Akron, Ohio, FirstEnergy has positions throughout its three-state (Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey) service area. Geographically, FirstEnergy jobs are categorized into one of nine regions, and the company’s web site provides detailed information on living in each of these areas. Functionally, positions with the company fall into one of 10 departments: finance/accounting, clerical, engineering, human resources, information technology, power line maintenance, legal, nuclear operations, supervisory and technical operations. All open positions are posted on the FirstEnergy web site, and candidates may submit their resumes online.

Opportunities for students FirstEnergy conducts on-campus recruiting at Midwestern colleges such as Kent State, the University of Akron, Wilberforce and Grove City College, where the company interviews students for possible internship, co-op and entry-level positions. Internships and co-ops are available in both business and technical fields. All FirstEnergy positions – internships included – are paid. For applicants interested in Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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beginning a career in the skilled trades, the company also offers an alternative path into the company. Through its Power Systems Institute, FirstEnergy provides training for line workers and substation electricians. Classes are offered at five different college campuses in Ohio and New Jersey. The standard FirstEnergy benefits package includes a choice of health insurance plans along with prescription, dental and life insurance coverage. For retirement, the company provides both a traditional pension plan as well as matching contributions in the form of company stock to each employee’s individual savings plan. FirstEnergy also rewards its workers with incentive bonuses when the company and/or local business unit meets its annual performance targets. Finally, all employees may take advantage of education and training opportunities such as inhouse seminars and conferences, certification training and testing, and tuition reimbursement for approved continuing education classes.

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GE Energy 4200 Wildwood Parkway Atlanta, GA 30339 Phone: (678) 844-6000 Fax: (678) 844-6690 www.gepower.com

LOCATIONS Atlanta, GA (HQ) Greenville, SC • Houston, TX • Melbourne, FL • Pensacola, FL • San Jose, CA • Schenectady, NY • Tehachapi, CA • Wilmington, NC Belfort, France • Florence, Italy • Kjeller, Norway • Lachine, Quebec • Salzbergen, Germany

THE STATS Employer Type: Subsidiary of General Electric President and CEO: John G. Rice 2002 Employees: 35,000 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $18,462

KEY COMPETITORS ABB Halliburton Nordex

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.gepower.com/careers

DEPARTMENTS Actuarial • Admin/Secretarial • Business Development • Clerical • Communications/Public Relations • Cross/Multi-Functional General Mgr Customer Service • Deal Execution/Transactions • Deal Origination/Sales • E-Business • Engineering/Technology • Environmental Health & Safety • Facility/Plant Engineering • Finance/Financial Services • Human Resources/Relations • Information Technology • Legal • Manufacturing/Production • Marketing/Product Development • Operations • Product Service • Program/Project Management • Quality (Six Sigma) • Risk Management • Sales (Direct/Indirect) • Sourcing • Support Services • Underwriting


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers GE Energy

THE SCOOP

The energy octopus General Electric is a giant octopus of a company. Its tentacles include commercial and consumer finance divisions, consumer and industrial products, healthcare, infrastructure, insurance and the NBC Universal media network, among others. One of the longest, strongest arms of the GE behemoth has always been the GE Energy (formerly known as General Electric Power Systems) division: It’s GE’s biggest industrial unit, and the world’s largest maker of power machinery. In 1998, the unit made 65 gas turbines in one of its main plants in Greenville, S.C. By 2001, that number had jumped to 260. Over the same period of time, GE Energy’s sales more than doubled, and earnings quadrupled. But lately, GE Energy – in particular, its gas turbine business – has been numbed by downturns in the energy industry.

The power systems tentacle GE Energy is a multi-faceted business arm comprised of 16 units, with revenue of almost $18.5 billion in 2003. Ever since it installed its first steam turbine in 1901, the unit has grown and diversified, extending to more than 120 countries from its home base of Atlanta. GE Nuclear Energy provides new and used parts for nuclear energy equipment; it also monitors and services boiling water reactor power plants. Some other GE Energy businesses include GE Hydro, GE Welding Specialty services (in particular for petrochemical, power generation, waste-to-energy, and pulp and paper industries) and Turbine Blading. Then, of course, there’s GE Oil & Gas, which, among other things, provides comprehensive oil pipeline services from inspections to cleaning and repairs. It also produces gas and steam turbines, compressors, pumps, valves, fuel dispensers and steering tools for drilling and exploration. In 1999 under then-CEO Robert Nardelli, GE Energy launched Energy Rentals, which rents remote, temporary and backup power equipment to utilities, industrial and commercial users, engineering and construction firms, municipalities, energy exploration companies and even the entertainment industry. After starting in Philadelphia, the division opened up other offices in rapid succession across the country, including Chicago and Baton Rouge, La., renting generators, air conditioners, transformers and power distribution equipment. The unit continued to expand with the acquisition of Showpower, Inc. for $28 million in early 2000.

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New bigwig, fresh acquisitions In November 2000, John Rice became GE Energy’s new CEO. Rice began working at GE as a member of its Financial Management Program in 1978 after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics from Hamilton College. In January 2002, GE Energy branched out again, acquiring Bently Nevada Corporation, a machinery monitoring and diagnostics company and the largest employer in Northern Nevada (besides the gaming industry, of course). GE Wind Energy – plucked from Enron’s carcass in May 2002 – boasts more than 6,100 wind turbine installations around the world. In Germany, Spain and the U.S., the company designs and produces a variety of wind turbines, and in Florida and the Netherlands, it manufactures advanced turbine blades.

“It smells really bad” Wherever there is a giant power company, there will be angry environmentalists. Despite its considerable forays into producing clean energy, GE is still making up for past misdeeds. In Eastern New York, the half-mile-wide Hudson River flows through pastoral woodlands, just under the Adirondacks. For 30 years, until 1977, GE legally dumped sludge laden with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – a byproduct of its factories – into the river, before the company says it discovered the refuse was most likely carcinogenic. Local towns and villages had been thriving, but then GE moved its plants, leaving behind unemployment and hazardous waste. The Environmental Protection Agency targeted about 200 miles of the area surrounding the Hudson for cleanup in 1983, and GE was deemed responsible for about 40 miles of waterway and riverbank along the upper Hudson. The Superfund program, established by federal law in 1980, taxes the chemical and petroleum industries to help pay for cleanup of polluted regions. It also gave the EPA the power to make particular companies clean up sites they polluted. Battles over Superfund sites can be lengthy and contentious. After years of talks, some environmentalists weren’t happy with what they saw as lax standards by the EPA: one activist said recently of the GE-EPA negotiations, “It smells really bad.” Even so, under one settlement, reached over the summer of 2003, GE agreed to a two-year sediment-sampling program costing $15 million, which would help lay out parameters for dredging the riverbed. The following year, GE also agreed to reimburse the EPA another $28 million for prior and projected cleanup costs. Over the past two decades, GE has anteed up over $300 million for its share of the Hudson Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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River cleanup, with future payouts still likely. The corporation is actively involved in 87 Superfund sites, though in many cases its role is small.

Business continues Superfund tribulations aside, GE Power Systems continued to pull in money. Until 2001, energy prices and demand had been surging, particularly in the Western United States. This increased demand for new gas turbines, creating a so-called “turbine bubble” that popped in late 2001. The need for new generators dropped with an overall decline in the nation’s energy market, while a mild winter and the recession had depressed electricity prices. Yet GE Energy made strong gains until mid-2002. Even cancelled orders couldn’t break its stride – when a number of companies cancelled their contracts in the first quarter of 2002, they had to pay termination fees to GE totaling $476 million. That alone accounted for almost half of GE Energy’s gain that quarter. But it also heralded the beginning of the end of a lucrative run.

Limping along With GE Energy’s share of the U.S. power market at an estimated 65 percent (and 50 to 60 percent of the world market), it stood to suffer from an overall drop in the market more than its main competitors, Siemens and Alstom. So CEO Rice tried to push more gas turbines in other corners of the globe, like Europe and Latin America, while refocusing on other aspects of the business, such as service contracts and sales of spare parts. Service contracts made up 30 percent of the company’s revenue by mid-2002, and Rice pledged to boost the figure to 50 percent before 2010. But the burst of the turbine bubble was already evident: 2002’s record revenue had now dropped to a projected $18.5 billion for 2003.

The workplace shuffle Forecasters were now predicting a drop of 80 percent or more in shipments of gas turbines by 2004. Sure enough, as the company resized and realigned, layoffs ensued. In July 2002, GE Energy announced plans to cut 2,500 jobs over the following nine months, mostly in turbine production facilities in Greenville and Schenectady, N.Y. Some of the cuts were made through attrition and early retirement.

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Still, at least one shift in the workplace proved advantageous for some. In October 2003, GE Nuclear Energy moved its worldwide headquarters from the Silicon Valley to Wilmington, Del., where it already had a large work site. The move brought 200 new jobs to the area and promised to reap upwards of $6.4 million for the company from state and county incentives over the next nine years.

The globetrotter As part of his diversification strategy, CEO John Rice began making sojourns around the globe to meet with executives and government officials. He hoped to boost business abroad to account for 75 percent of GE Energy’s revenue. In August 2002 in Moscow, he met with senior officers from Unified Energy Systems of Russia to discuss investment projects, as well as the possibility of bringing GE Energy’s monitoring services to Russia. Three months later, he took a four-day trip to China. He examined GE Energy’s potential to do business in conjunction with the 2008 Olympic Games, and looked into deals on the highly controversial Three-Gorges Dam, for which GE Canada had already won turbine contracts years before. In February 2003, GE Energy made its biggest foray into China yet, acquiring majority ownership of a Chinese company supplying hydropower generation equipment and changing the name to GE Hydro Asia. The next month, it won a bid to build gas turbines for China’s latest Five-Year Plan (2001-2005). Workers at the company’s 34-year old Bangor, Maine, plant were pleased by the deal – the contract with China saved about 25 jobs there that had been slated for permanent cuts. Annual sales turnover in China is expected to reach $1 billion by 2005. In May 2003, GE bought Jenbacher, an Austrian company that makes engines that harness bio gasses from landfills and livestock farms. But in September 2003, as he opened a gas turbine-powered station in south Wales, Rice predicted depressed demand for new power stations until at least the end of 2004.

Inventive measures GE Energy is still a source of continual innovation. One of the latest: a sub-sea compressor that can operate as deep as 1,640 feet under the ocean. And in January 2004, Canada’s Hydro-Quebec put GE’s latest turbine, known as H System, to use for the first time in the world, though an earlier H System plant had already launched in South Wales. The advanced gas turbine technology is highly efficient, producing more electricity with less fuel and emitting fewer greenhouse gasses than its older Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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cousins. It won Most Innovative Commercial Technology of the Year in the 2003 Global Energy Awards. With such technology, GE can be competitive in foreign energy markets that, unlike the U.S., adhere to the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement among developed nations on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the downturn at home, GE Energy continued to acquire other companies when it could. In November 2002, it spent $250 million to add Osmonics, a water purification and filtration equipment company, to its GE Water unit.

Surfing power GE Energy offers extensive web-based tools. Via the Internet, commercial customers can do just about anything: purchase spare parts for aero-derivative gas turbines, schedule service visits, get information on specific projects, track railway shipments, access technical manuals, and even watch live as GE engineers conduct performance tests on large-frame gas or steam turbines.

The doyen GE Energy’s leadership is highly touted. In early 2004, Rice was named CEO of the Year by Atlanta’s Business to Business Magazine. According to B2B, chat sessions among employees and management are par for the course. “Rice is known for his participatory management style, for soliciting input up and down the chain of command,” lauds the magazine. Rice is also chairman of Atlanta’s Chamber of Commerce. And, as a member of the newly formed Atlanta Committee for Progress, he advises Mayor Shirley Franklin on economic development. And it’s not just Rice who’s been the object of praise. GE director, U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, won the Atlanta Legend title. Former GE Energy CEO Robert Nardelli was also represented; Home Depot, which he now heads, won the magazine’s company of the year award.

GETTING HIRED

Bringing good jobs to life To help some of its laid-off Schenectady employees, GE Energy opened a 15,000square-foot job-training center in nearby Niskayuna in mid-2003. The center, funded

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in part by New York State’s AFL-CIO, offered the newly unemployed workers help with interviewing skills, job searching, resume writing and computer training. But at GE Energy, a company with more than 35,000 employees worldwide, there are still jobs to be had. GE Energy offers tons of entry-level positions, which can be researched along with other slots in a comprehensive web-based search engine on GE’s main career web page. Applicants can search any of 29 job categories, from actuarial to underwriting and everything in between. The site is also searchable by keyword, city and job ID number. Candidates can even create up to three “job agents,” which will automatically scour the company’s postings and send an e-mail with openings that match certain criteria.

Co-op opportunities GE Energy offers two well-developed co-op programs for students and others who want to get a foot in the door. Through the Early Identification Program, talented engineering students at the beginning of their academic careers can get real-world work experience with extra support along the way. Enrollees in the EID program earn more benefits than the usual intern: a competitive salary, reimbursement of moving expenses and paid holidays. GE Energy recruits on campuses across the country in both the fall and spring for these positions. The company also offers a less perk-filled Student Training Employment Program.

For nascent careers GE Energy also boasts an extensive array of programs for somewhat more experienced applicants who are still at the beginning of their careers. Some of these positions, in so-called Leadership Development Programs, require an advanced degree and often prefer some related work experience. Other positions just look require passion, a high-GPA and concentration in a particular discipline – human resources, information technology or environmental health and safety, among others. Once you’re in, the jobs usually offer rotating assignments over a two-year period. Applicants can link to GE’s main career web page for information on when recruiters will be coming to a nearby campus. GE Energy is always looking to make field engineers of recent college graduates. After getting hired, field engineers must complete an eight-month training program that teaches business acumen and technical skills. Field engineers travel widely, so check out the company’s web site for details about the demands and lifestyle of the position. Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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Seeking experience Engineers with three or more years of experience can apply for GE Energy’s Direct Hire Program. Direct Hires attend an accelerated orientation course of six to eight weeks at GE’s Power Systems University in Schenectady. The company also has a special program just for recruitment of junior military officers into engineering, ebusiness, finance, communications and other fields. It offers special programs help to new employees transitioning from military to civilian life, including special courses to help “catch up” to other GE employees, help building new social networks while maintaining military relationships and assistance finding banks, day care, schools and other services.

The way it’s done General Electric spends about $1 billion annually on its training and education programs throughout the world. The company recently opened the John F. Welch Leadership Center in Crontonville, N.Y., on 53 acres in the Hudson River Valley. GE employees, customers and business partners from various countries come to beef up their business skills at the center. As for tangible benefits, GE employees receive vision, dental and prescription coverage through one of two different health plans. It also offers a healthcare flexible spending account, which lets employees use pre-tax dollars to cover co-pays, deductibles and other expenses not included in the benefits package. The company also tries to maintain diversity through initiatives like its Hispanic Forum, African American Forum, Women’s Network and Asian Pacific American Forum. It’s all covered on the company’s “Why work at GE” web page.

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3M | A.T. Kearney | ABN Amro | AOL Time Warner | AT&T | AXA | Abbott Laboratorie Accenture | Adobe Systems | Advanced Micro Devices | Agilent Technologies | Alco nc. | Allen & Overy | Allstate | Altria Group | American Airlines | American Electri Power | American Express | American International Group | American Managemen Systems | Apple Computer | Applied Materials | Apria Healthcare Group | AstraZeneca Automatic Data Processing | BDO Seidman | BP | Bain & Company | Bank One | Bank o America | Bank of New York | Baxter | Bayer | BMW | Bear Stearns | BearingPoint BellSouth | Berkshire Hathaway | Bertelsmann | Best Buy | Bloomberg | Boeing | Boo Allen | Borders | Boston Consulting Group | Bristol-Myers Squibb | Broadview nternational| Brown Brothers Harriman | Buck Consultants| CDI Corp.| CIBC Worl Markets | CIGNA | CSX Corp| CVS Corporation | Campbell Soup Company| Cap Gemin Ernst & Young| Capital One | Cargill| | Charles Schwab | ChevronTexaco Corp. | Chiquit Brands International | Chubb Group | Cisco Systems | Citigroup | Clear Channel | Cliffor Chance LLP | Clorox Company | Coca-Cola Company | Colgate-Palmolive | Comcast Comerica | Commerce BanCorp | Computer Associates | Computer Science Corporation | ConAgra | Conde Nast | Conseco | Continental Airlines | Corning Corporate Executive Board | Covington & Burling | Cox Communications | Credit Suiss First Boston | D.E. Shaw | Davis Polk & Wardwell | Dean & Company | Dell Computer Deloitte & Touche | Deloitte Consulting | Delphi Corporation | Deutsche Bank | Dewe Ballantine | DiamondCluster International | Digitas | Dimension Data | Dow Chemical Dow Jones | Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein | Duracell | Dynegy Inc. | EarthLink Eastman Kodak | Eddie Bauer | Edgar, Dunn & Company | El Paso Corporation Electronic Data Systems | Eli Lilly | Entergy Corporation | Enterprise Rent-A-Car | Erns & Young | Exxon Mobil | FCB Worldwide | Fannie Mae | FedEx Corporation | Federa Reserve Bank of New York | Fidelity Investments | First Data Corporation | FleetBosto Financial | Ford Foundation | Ford Motor Company | GE Capital | Gabelli Asse Management | Gallup Organization | Gannett Company | Gap Inc | Gartner | Gateway Genentech | General Electric Company | General Mills | General Motors | Genzyme Georgia-Pacific | GlaxoSmithKline | Goldman Sachs | Goodyear Tire & Rubber | Gran Thornton LLP | Guardian Life Insurance | HCA | HSBC | Hale and Dorr | Halliburton Hallmark | Hart InterCivic | Hartford Financial Services Group | Haverstick Consulting Hearst Corporation | Hertz Corporation | Hewitt Associates | Hewlett-Packard | Hom Depot | Honeywell | Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin | Household International | IBM KON Office Solutions | ITT Industries | Ingram Industries | Integral | Intel | Internationa Paper Company | Interpublic Group of Companies | Intuit | Irwin Financial | J. Walte Thompson | J.C. Penney | J.P. Morgan Chase | Janney Montgomery Scott | Janu Capital | John Hancock Financial | Johnson & Johnson | Johnson Controls | KLA-Tenco Corporation | Kaiser Foundation Health Plan | Keane | Kellogg Company | Ketchum Kimberly-Clark Corporation | King & Spalding | Kinko’s | Kraft Foods | Kroger | Kur Salmon Associates | L.E.K. Consulting | Latham & Watkins | Lazard | Lehman Brother Lockheed Martin | Logica | Lowe’s Companies | Lucent Technologies | MBI | MBNA Manpower | Marakon Associates | Marathon Oil | Marriott | Mars & Company | McCann Erickson | McDermott, Will & Emery | McGraw-Hill | McKesson | McKinsey & Compan Merck & Co. | Merrill Lynch | Metropolitan Life | Micron Technology | Microsoft | Mille Brewing | Monitor Group | Monsanto | Morgan Stanley | Motorola | NBC | Nestle | Newe Rubbermaid | Nortel Networks | Northrop Grumman | Northwestern Mutual Financia Network | Novell | O’Melveny & Myers | Ogilvy & Mather | Oracle | Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe | PA Consulting | PNC Financial Services | PPG Industries | PRTM | PacifiCar Health Systems | PeopleSoft | PepsiCo | Pfizer | Pillsbury Winthrop | Pitne Go| Pharmacia to www.vault.com Bowes | Preston Gates & Ellis | PricewaterhouseCoopers | Principal Financial Group Procter & Gamble Company | Proskauer Rose | Prudential Financial | Prudentia Securities | Putnam Investments | Qwest Communications | R.R. Donnelley & Sons




Halliburton Company 5 Houston Center 1401 McKinney, Ste. 2400 Houston, TX 77020 Phone: (713) 759-2600 Fax: (713) 759-2635 www.halliburton.com

LOCATIONS Houston, TX (HQ) Albuquerque, NM Anchorage, AL Arlington, VA Clearwater, FL Corpus Christi, TX Dallas, TX Duncan, OK Ft. Worth, TX Louisville, KY Oklahoma City, OK Pasadena, CA San Antonio, TX Tulsa, OK Beijing, China Berkshire, UK Brussels, Belgium London, UK Paris, France Prague, Czech Republic Tianjin, China Vienna, Austria Zagreb, Croatia

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DEPARTMENTS Account Management • Accounting Assembly • Aviation • Boat Operations • Business Development • Civil Crafts • Contracts • Corporate Security • Crafts & Trades • Credit Union • Electro/Mechanical Technicians • Engineering Technology • Fabrication/Material • Food Service • Field Operations • General Management • Government Compliance/Relations • Health, Safety & Environment • Industrial Services • Lab Technicians • Law • Logistics/Supply • MWR Coord. (Morale, Welfare & Recreation) • Machining • Maintenance • Mechanical Crafts • Mergers & Acquisitions • Other Crafts • PSL Delivery • Procurement • Drilling/Production • Project Management • Quality • Real Estate Services • Risk Management • Science • Security • Shared Services Management • Strategic Development • SubContracts • Subsea • Tax • Technical Disciplines • Technical Support • Treasury •

© 2004 Vault Inc.

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: HAL Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman, President and CEO: David J. (Dave) Lesar 2003 Employees: 101,000 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $16,246

KEY COMPETITORS Bechtel Schlumberger Technip

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.halliburton.com/careers/


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Halliburton Company

THE SCOOP

More than war Perhaps no contemporary company is so redolent of government connectedness as Halliburton. It’s been in the news a lot lately for its dealings in war-torn countries. But military contracting is hardly the foundation of this Texas-based business. Its core operations are energy projects, including construction and maintenance of oil rigs and natural-gas facilities. In fact, Halliburton’s hand can be found in the energy industry from start to finish, from exploration and extraction to operation, management, and abandonment of oil and natural gas reserves both on land and under sea. More than 100,000 Halliburton employees work in over 120 countries. Under the parent company, there are five segments across two main divisions. The Energy Services Group encompasses business segments for drilling and formative evaluation, fluids, production optimization, and landmark and other energy services. Subsidiaries in this group include Landmark Graphics Corporation, Wellstream and the joint venture companies Enventure, Well Dynamics and Subsea 7. Then there’s Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), the engineering and construction division that’s responsible for building pipelines, and production facilities, among other things.

Midwest foundations In 1919, after he was fired for talking back to his boss, Erle Halliburton set up his own company, the New Method Oil Well Cementing Company in Oklahoma. He had come up with a novel way to fortify the walls of oil wells, which would cut the risk of explosions and contamination of ground water. He lined the wells with steel pipes, which he caked with cement for even more strength. By patenting his method, Halliburton ensured that safety-conscious oil companies would have to employ him to line their wells. At around the same time, as the U.S. entered the roaring 1920s, George and Herman Brown, along with their brother-in-law, Dan Root, were starting up their own general contracting company in Texas. By the time George passed away in the early 1960s, his company had also forayed into road construction and had built the world’s first offshore oil platform. In 1962, after Halliburton had also died, the company he founded bought Brown & Root. Dresser Industries and MW Kellogg, other major

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Halliburton acquisitions, had come of age during the country’s first oil boom of the late 1800s.

Far-reaching resources By the time the oil business spurted again in the 1970s, Halliburton had acquired all these companies, helping it diversity its portfolio and putting it ahead in the industry. This, along with unfortunate slashes in its workforce, helped the company stay alive when the industry tanked in 1982. In the 1990s, Halliburton took its global reach further than ever, expanding into Russia, China, India and Asia with new acquisitions and joint ventures. In 1993, the company started restructuring toward its current shape, which merges all divisions under one parent company.

Cheney rising As Halliburton CEO Thomas Cruikshank neared retirement, he began a search for his replacement. He set his sights on a conservative think tank fellow, Dick Cheney. After the two met at a fishing lodge, as The Wall Street Journal reported in a 2004 article, Cruikshank led a year-long drive to get the former defense secretary to take the helm of his company. Among other things, the $2 million in salary and bonuses, as well as options worth $4 million, finally lured Cheney to the post. “He could access governments around the world,” David Lesar, current CEO, told the Journal. “If Dick went to Kuwait, he would see the emir. He could go to Oman and see the energy minister.” Cheney ran Halliburton from 1995 to 2000, when he became U.S. vice president. During his tenure, he made some important moves.

Something in the air Cheney’s biggest venture was the purchase of Dresser Industries, its staunchest rival, for $7.3 billion in 1998 – creating the largest energy-services business in the world. But with the new subsidiary, Halliburton inherited some old legal problems. A former Dresser subsidiary had used asbestos in industrial furnace cement, and now Halliburton faced a massive class-action lawsuit brought by more than 300,000 former workers who claimed they developed a strain of cancer that has been linked to asbestos exposure. The company agreed to a settlement of about $4 billion in late 2002. The agreement also moved Dresser (now called DII Industries) and KBR (not including its government services) subsidiaries closer to bankruptcy, but the parent company was Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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spared from having to file. And oddly enough, it may have helped boost Halliburton’s economic performance: “Although whopping, the settlement appears to have removed a dark cloud that had pounded Halliburton shares,” wrote the Houston Business Journal. In January 2004, a group of insurers moved to block the deal, arguing in a court filing in Houston that they’d be the ones footing half of Halliburton’s bill. But the insurers were denied standing to bring motions in the settlement, which is scheduled to continue with hearings in May to further finalize reorganization plans.

Profiteering While running Halliburton, surprisingly enough, Cheney didn’t relish pursuing government contracts. “The federal government is always a difficult customer,” he told corporate historian Jeffrey Rodengen in 1996. (The comment was later rehashed in a Wall Street Journal piece). But the company did begin vying for some government contracts when, according to the Journal, subsidiary Brown & Root needed new projects in the early 1990s. In 1992 it started supplying meals and laundry services, among other things, to American soldiers fighting in war zones through a five-year contract with the U.S. Army. Now, Halliburton provides other services – latrine cleaning, for example – in war zones across the globe. Still, while military contracts are big business – and a good buffer in the topsy-turvy energy industry – the company’s energy services are more lucrative, accounting for 78 percent of its operating income in the third quarter of 2003. If Halliburton’s Cheney connection and government contracts began as smart business, they’re now a perpetual thorn in the company’s side, even as it remains unapologetic for them. First, according to a New Yorker article, while Cheney was still ensconced in his Pentagon position, he privatized military services like food preparation and laundry. Then, Cheney’s Pentagon recruited Halliburton to run a study – for a hardy sum of $3.9 million – on how best to go about privatizing the services. And finally, of course, the Pentagon chose to hire Halliburton to take over the services. When Cheney got to Halliburton, he knew the ins and outs of international diplomacy. So even while the U.S. had imposed sanctions against Iraq, Libya and Iran for their support of terrorism, the company was able to conduct business with all three – legally – through Halliburton’s foreign and domestic subsidiaries.

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The real ruckus Despite having sold oil services and parts to deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as recently as 2000, Halliburton was now hired by the Navy to erect camps for U.S. prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for $37 million. It also got $100 million from the State Department to build a new embassy in Afghanistan. And most notoriously, it won a $7 billion noncompetitive bid from a secret task force to fix up oil fields in Iraq. Halliburton, headed by David Lesar since Cheney ascended to veep, overcharged the U.S. government in a gas contract – to the tune of $61 million. It also overcharged the U.S. by an additional $27.4 million for food contracts that nourished American troops stationed in the mid-East. The company also admitted that there was another overcharge of $6.3 million, stemming from two employees who took kickbacks (both offenders were fired in January 2004). The day after the kickbacks came to light, according to the New Yorker, the company was awarded a new contract for $1.2 billion from the Pentagon. This contract is now under investigation by the Defense Department, and the Justice Department had also opened preliminary investigations into the suspected $180-million worth of bribes taken at a subsidiary operating in Nigeria in February 2004. Of course, there are two sides to every story. In an article printed in USA Today in March 2004, Lesar says Halliburton has been targeted by Democrats because of the company’s strong Republican connections. Lesar also states that the billing problems resulted in part because the company’s services were needed so quickly that there was little time to assess exactly how much was provided. Other reports have noted that some billing discrepancies resulted from a gap in the estimated and actual number of meals served. Regardless of how the errors occurred, the company maintains that it is actively working with the Pentagon to correct any and all billing errors. “Mistakes happen in a war zone. To the military, to everybody. We’ll find them and fix them,” Lesar told USA Today.

Other charges Asbestos and accusations of war profiteering are only the most widely known cases against the company. But there are others: In 2000, another energy company based in Houston, Anglo-Dutch Petroleum International, sued Halliburton and other companies for $677 million – the amount of money, it says, that it lost when the defendants undermined its deal to develop an oil field in the Republic of Kazhakstan. A civil jury found in favor of Anglo-Dutch for $77 million in November 2003.


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The same year, the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating Halliburton’s accounting practices during Cheney’s tenure as CEO. In May, the company agreed to pay $6 million toward 20 shareholder class-action securities cases, as well as a shareholder derivative lawsuit, over accounting practices on longterm fixed price construction projects.

Groundswell Halliburton’s oil-field services in Iraq reaped $2.2 billion in 2002. Profits were strong from all its oil-field services, which helped offset the charges against the company for asbestos litigation. But they still didn’t contribute the most revenue. In fact, engineering and government contracting divisions generated more revenue, which grew by 63 percent to $5.46 billion. For the year, the company posted a net loss of $947 million, versus a $616 million loss in 2001. Overall, annual sales have risen steadily, from nearly $12 billion in 2001 to over $16 billion in 2003.

GETTING HIRED

Try online Through the company’s career web site at www.halliburton.com/careers/index.jsp, applicants can search for just about any position, in many countries for varying skill levels. Positions range across all fields of expertise, including accounting and finance, craft and technical, engineering, human resources and information technology. Anyone specifically looking to dip their toes into the field of government contracts, can perform a separate job scan at KBR’s government operations site, accessible from Halliburton’s career page.

Learning opportunities On the sites University section, a wealth of information awaits. Interested applicants can search to see when Halliburton will be holding a recruiting event at a nearby college (though it spends a lot of time at California schools). Candidates can also submit resumes via e-mail for internship positions, which feature orientation presentations in different fields, a mentor/buddy system, training in presentation skills, and performance evaluations.

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New accounting hires can expect to be rotated among 12 different areas of the company’s vast financial department. Other employees can further their training, too, through Halliburton’s Manufacturing Management Program and Technical Excellence Center for field engineers.


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Marathon Oil Corporation 5555 San Felipe Rd. Houston, TX 77056 Phone: (713) 629-6600 Fax: (713) 296-2952 www.marathon.com

LOCATIONS Houston, Texas (HQ) Findlay, OH Equatorial Guinea Gabon Ireland Norway Russia United Kingdom

DEPARTMENTS Administrative Clerical Engineering Finance/Accounting Human Resources Legal Natural Gas Operations Others Professional Technical - IT Support

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THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: MRO Stock Exchange: NYSE President, CEO, Director: Clarence P. Cazalot Jr. 2003 Employees: 27,007 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $36,678

KEY COMPETITORS ChevronTexaco ConocoPhillips Exxon Mobil Royal Dutch/Shell Group

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.marathon.com/careers/

© 2005 Vault Inc.

Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Marathon Oil Corporation

THE SCOOP

All about Marathon Marathon Oil Corporation is an international energy concern engaged in exploration and production; integrated gas; and refining, marketing and transportation. Headquartered in Houston, Marathon has principal exploration and production activities in the U.S., the U.K., Angola, Canada, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ireland, Norway and Russia. Marathon is a leading refiner and marketer in the United States through a 62 percent interest in Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC.

Mapping out domestic operations Marathon produces oil and gas in about five states and the Gulf of Mexico. The company conducts its domestic refining, marketing and transportation operations through Marathon Ashland Petroleum (MAP), a joint venture with Ashland Petroleum. (Marathon owns 62 percent of MAP.) MAP owns, operates or leases more than 8,000 miles of pipeline and has seven refineries, which account for about 6 percent of the total capacity in the U.S. MAP’s subsidiaries include Speedway, SuperAmerica and Pilot Travel Centers.

From Russia to Gabon Marathon began international exploration in the early 1900s. Today it explores for oil and gas in more than a dozen countries and produces oil and natural gas primarily in the United States, Norway, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Gabon and Russia. During 2003, the company had revenue of $41 billion (waaaay up from 2002’s total of $31.5 billion) and net income of $1.3 billion.

Ohio beginnings Marathon was founded in 1887 as the Ohio Oil Company by a group of independent oil producers who banded together to compete with Standard Oil. Two years later, Ohio Oil was the largest producer in Ohio, attracting the attention of Standard Oil, which simply acquired it. As a result of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the Standard Oil monopoly was broken up, and Ohio Oil regained its independence in 1911. After striking oil in Texas in 1924, Ohio Oil began acquiring other properties, and in 1962 changed its name to Marathon Oil Company to tie it closer to its line of motor fuel and related products. Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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The USX factor In 1982, U.S. Steel acquired Marathon for $6.5 billion. While Marathon thrived, U.S. Steel suffered along with the rest of the steel industry. Through a series of restructurings, the corporation cut its raw steel production capability by close to twothirds. It then sold and consolidated a number of its diversified businesses, including chemical businesses and domestic transportation subsidiaries. Later, it launched a number of joint ventures with U.S. and foreign partners. U.S. Steel changed its name to USX in 1986 to better reflect its varied business units. In 1990 Marathon moved its headquarters to Houston. After a failed corporate raid by financier Carl Icahn, USX split Marathon and U.S. Steel into two separate stock classes in 1991. Then known as USX-Marathon, the company spent most of the 1990s restructuring its business lines, and expanding internationally. In 2002 USX changed its name to Marathon Oil Corporation after spinning off U.S. Steel as a separate company.

New Alaskan discovery In January 2002 Marathon Oil discovered natural gas on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. The company believes there are some 90 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas reserves in the area. As the operator of the region, Marathon has a 60 percent interest in the reserves, while Unocal Alaska holds the remaining 40 percent

Strategic acquisitions Marathon has always relied on acquisitions and mergers to help fuel its growth. In the last several years it has really stepped up and targeted companies that will help it grow strategically. In March 2001, Marathon completed the acquisition of Pennaco Energy, Inc., for $500 million. Pennaco was one of the largest leaseholders in production of coal bed methane gas in the world. Then in June 2002, Marathon acquired Houston-based Globex Energy Inc. for $155 million. The acquisition boosted the company’s exploration and production base, primarily in Equatorial Guinea, adding about 38 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in proved reserves. The company went abroad again, this time to Russia, in May 2003 to purchase Khanty Mansiysk Oil Corp. (KMOC) for $285 million. KMOC has been developing nine oil fields in the Khanty-Mansiysk region of western Siberia, and Marathon sees the potential for 900 million barrels of oil at the site. The company’s latest acquisition is a little closer to home. In March 2004, Marathon Oil announced it was buying out Ashland Petroleum’s 38 percent stake in MAP as well as two other Ashland businesses for about $3 billion. Marathon already owned

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62 percent of MAP, which currently is the nation’s fifth largest oil refiner. The deal was made for $315 million in Marathon stock, $794 million in cash and $1.9 billion in debt. As part of the deal, Marathon also gains control over 61 Valvoline Oil Change centers in Michigan and Ohio run by Ashland and a chemical plant in West Virginia.

A busy year The company had a good year in 2003, and managed to replace 124 percent of its 2003 worldwide crude oil and natural gas production by the end of the year – and as of April 2004 was projecting that it would replace approximately 180 percent of production at the end of the year. As mentioned previously, the company’s revenue skyrocketed to $41 billion in 2003, up from 2002’s total of $31.5 billion. The company realize exploration success with nine separate offshore exploration discoveries in Norway, Angola, Equatorial Guinea and the Gulf of Mexico. The company also renewed its focus on properties in Equatorial Guinea and Norway. Marathon continued managing its asset portfolio with the divestment of about $1 billion worth of non-core assets during 2003. As part of the company’s “asset rationalization” program, as it called the sell off, Marathon unloaded its interest in CLAM Petroleum B.V. (Marathon held a 50-percent interest in CLAM, which includes production from 25 gas fields located offshore the Netherlands) in The Netherlands for $100 million, its upstream interests in Western Canada, various assets in the Big Horn Basin of the Western United States and its interest in the Sacroc and Yates fields in the Permian Basin of West Texas. Also, during the second quarter of 2003, MAP completed the sale of 190 Speedway retail locations in the Southeast United States to Sunoco for $140 million.

Looking ahead In January 2004, Marathon announced a 2004 capital, investment and exploration expenditure budget of approximately $2.3 billion. This represents a 3.7 percent increase over the company’s expenditures of $2.18 billion during 2003. During 2004, the company expects worldwide production capital expenditures will be $810 million. Meanwhile, Marathon will be targeting other investments in support of its production growth and development projects in Russia, Norway, Equatorial Guinea and the Gulf of Mexico. The company’s worldwide exploration and exploitation budget of $302 million includes plans to drill 11 exploration wells in Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Norway, the Gulf of Mexico and Nova Scotia, Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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although the company has stated that exploitation activities will continue to focus on the United States.

GETTING HIRED

Hiring process www.marathon.com/Careers/Career_Opportunities/ Resumes and cover letters may be e-mailed directly through the site for the specific position listed, faxed or posted to the Recruiting and Placement division. Those interested in internships at the company can also find out more information on the site and apply online.

Opportunities for minority students Summer internships at Marathon are paid. The company also sponsors The Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship Program, which provides summer internship opportunities to students studying geology, environmental science, geophysics, engineering and mathematics. The fellowship is composed of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Internship Program, the Hispanic Internship Program and the Tribal Colleges and Universities Internship Program. In September 2004, Marathon launched its Corporate Scholars Program with the United Negro College Fund. This $1.5 million commitment will provide scholarship and internship opportunities for approximately 30 outstanding minority, full-time, undergraduate and graduate students studying earth sciences, engineering, mathematics and physics. Detailed eligibility requirements and application details for the program can be found at www.uncf.org.

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Occidental Petroleum Corporation 10889 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90024 Phone: (310) 208-8800 Fax: (310) 443-6690 www.oxy.com

LOCATIONS United States: Bakersfield, CA Houston, TX Midland, TX Liberal, KS Long Beach, CA Los Angeles, CA (HQ) International: Colombia Ecuador Oman Pakistan Peru Qatar Russia United Arab Emirates Yemen

DEPARTMENTS Accounting Exploration Facilities Engineering Field Operations Human Resources Information Technology Maintenance Engineering Process Engineering Reservoir Engineering Safety Sales/Customer Service Technology

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: OXY Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman and CEO: Ray R. Irani 2003 Employees (worldwide): appr. 7,100 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $9,326

KEY COMPETITORS Amerada Hess BP ChevronTexaco Exxon Mobil

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT Occidental Petroleum Corporation 10889 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90024 Attn: Human Resources Occidental Oil & Gas Corporation 5 Greenway Plaza, Suite 110 Houston, TX 77046 Attn: Human Resources Phone: (713) 215-7524 www.oxy.com/careers/careers.htm


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Occidental Petroleum Corporation

THE SCOOP

Oil and gas explorer Occidental Petroleum is one of the largest oil and gas exploration companies in the world. Through its subsidiary Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation, the company engages in exploration, development and marketing of crude oil and natural gas. Through Occidental Chemical Corporation, the company also manufactures and markets a variety of basic chemicals, polymers and plastics.

Black gold rush Occidental, founded in 1920, was actually just a minor player in the energy industry during its early years. But the company started to grow a few decades later. Businessman Armand Hammer, made a $100,000 personal investment in 1956. In 1961, Occidental discovered California’s second largest gas field. After hitting it big in California, Occidental won permission from Libya’s King Idris to explore the country for oil. In 1966, the company discovered a billion-barrel oil field there. The company began diversifying two years later, acquiring Island Creek Coal and Hooker Chemical.

Leaving Libya, branching out After Muammar Qaddafi ousted King Idris in 1969, he sent the California-based company packing. In 1971, Oxy, as Occidental is affectionately called by its employees and the press, established a presence in Latin America and entered the North Sea area (where it later found the lucrative Piper oilfield) the following year. In 1981 Occidental purchased Iowa Beef Processors for $750 million in stock. Six years later, the company spun off 49 percent of the company for $960 million. After selling off some of its foreign operations, the company acquired Cities Service, an Oklahoma oil company, in 1982 and MidCon, a natural gas transmission concern, four years later.

Ray Irani takes the reins Ray Irani (the company’s current CEO), who has been with the company since 1983, led the integration of the oil and chemical operations and initiated the acquisitions of Shamrock Chemicals, Cain Chemical and several other properties during his tenure. By 1989, OxyChem was back on track, posting profits of more than $1 billion. Irani 144

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took over as CEO in 1990 when Armand Hammer died. In 1991, the company sold off holdings in China and the North Sea and spun off the rest of Iowa Beef Processors. Three years later, through a deal with Italy’s Agip Petroleum, the company acquired interests in 17 oil and gas properties on the Gulf Coast.

Trimming operations In the late 1990s, oil and gas prices fell drastically (28 percent between 1997 and 1998 alone), diminishing earnings industry-wide. Occidental initiated a restructuring in 1997 that shifted it production focus to the United States, where the company acquired the Elk Hills field in 1998 and Altura Energy in 2000. After merging its petrochemical operations with Equistar in 1998, Occidental began consolidating the rest of its chemical holdings. The company also began selling off some of its operations in an effort to trim its debt. In August 2000, the company sold its Gulf of Mexico oil and gas interests to Apache Corp. for $385 million. In November, Occidental sold its Durez phenolic resins business to Sumitomo Bakelite. In the meantime, Occidental continued to focus on chlor-alkali and vinyls businesses, forming a joint venture with the chlor-alkali operations of Olin Corp. in June 2000.

Healthy outlook Occidental’s cost-cutting efforts appear to have paid off. As of October 2004, Occidental has reduced its debt-to-capitalization ratio to 29 percent – that’s down from 57 percent in 2000. Another sign of health: The company’s debt is down to $3.9 billion – its lowest level in 20 years. Looking at its oil and gas operations, Occidental said its worldwide production has grown by 5 percent since 1997; the company foresees that level of annual growth continuing into 2005.

Back to the shores of Tripoli? U.S. oil companies with holdings in Libya received White House permission in late February 2004 to negotiate the resumption of once-lucrative deals stalled by bilateral sanctions imposed in 1986. The Bush administration ended a long-standing ban on travel to Libya and invited American companies to begin planning their return after Moammar Gadhafi’s government confirmed that it was responsible for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 and agreed to drop its nuclear weapons program. Occidental was a major player in Libya’s oil industry until the Regan administration imposed sanctions in 1986. During the sanctions era, Occidental retained contractual Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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rights to multiple production and exploration properties. In 2004, Dr. Ray R. Irani, the company’s chairman and CEO, met with Libyan leader Colonel Moammar alGhadafi and other high-ranking Libyan officials in Libya to discuss the resumption of the company’s operations that were suspended in 1986. Significant improvement in U.S.-Libyan relations would enable Occidental to return to Libya. Analysts say Occidental’s long history in the country gives it a leg up in the competition to upgrade Libya’s oil infrastructure. Energy experts said an infusion of American capital and expertise would likely slow the decline of Libya’s oil production and could help restore output to its historical peak. Libya now produces less than half its 1970 high of 3.3 million barrels a day. Occidental, in partnership with Libya, reached a peak output of 800,000 barrels per day. In 1985, its last full year operating in Libya, Occidental’s share of production was only 47,000 barrels per day. While Libya’s production has continuously slumped since then, Occidental believes it can reverse the trend. “We’re very good at taking mature producing properties and applying new technologies and new reservoir management techniques to arrest the decline in production,” a spokesperson for the company said.

Increased production Occidental replaced 184 percent of the oil and natural gas it produced in 2003, adding proven reserves equal to 368 million barrels of oil through new discoveries and expansions and the acquisition of new fields. Occidental finished 2003 with proven reserves totaling 2.47 billion barrels of oil. The company’s worldwide production grew to 547,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2003, up from 395,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 1997, a 38.5 percent increase.

Strong earnings Continued strong oil and gas prices combined with record exploration of oil during 2003 contributed to Occidental Petroleum’s second best year ever, with annual net income of $1.527 billion. Occidental’s oil and gas segment earnings of $640 million for the fourth quarter of 2003 reflected higher worldwide commodity prices, increased crude sales volumes, lower exploration expense and a $38 million refund of property taxes. The increased oil production was mostly from Ecuador and Horn Mountain. The company’s net income for the fourth quarter 2003 was $382 million compared with $322 million for the fourth quarter 2002.

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Other news Oxy named James Lienert president of its chemical subsidiary, effective March 1, 2004. Lienert, a 30-year veteran of the OxyChem unit, replaces Jack Hurst, who will retire. On another note, in September 2004, GovernanceMetrics International (GMI), an independent governance agency, awarded Occidental its highest corporate governance score. Occidental was one of fifteen US and two Canadian firms, out of a total of 1,000 US and 600 non-US companies, to receive a top score of 10.0. The company announced plans in October 2004 to buy four chemical plants from Vulcan Materials Company that will boost its chlorine production. The plants, which are located in Kansas, Louisiana and Wisconsin will cost Occidental “at least $214 million,” according an article in The New York Times.

GETTING HIRED

Work and learn Oxy invites those interested to review available positions on its career web site (www.oxy.com/HTML/humanresources.html) and submit a resume for the desired position. The company has an internship program that targets students who are pursuing degrees in engineering, geology and geophysics. Interns work for eight to 10 weeks at one of Occidental’s U.S. sites. See the company’s web site for further information on how to apply. Because of the rapid pace of change within the energy industry, Occidental expects employees to be committed to continuing their educations while on the job, and supports employees through mentoring and on-the-job training, seminars and tuition reimbursement. As for other benefits, the company provides health, life, accident and disability insurance, as well as retirement savings programs.

OUR SURVEY SAYS

Life in a small town Because Occidental is comprised of “so many acquired operations,” the culture “varies significantly from one location to the next.” As one source puts it, “Each plant is like a small town.” Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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Diversity Sources also note that “the company bends over backwards to ensure equitable treatment of women and minorities.” One insider even suggests that it is “excessively favorable.” The same source adds that “the company is actively recruiting the best women and minority candidates and has created very effective policies and training to prevent discrimination.” Says another insider, “The greatest problem is inadequate mentoring for these new hires, but some divisions are working to amend that - largely by increasing the number of women and minorities in management positions.”

Safety A major source of pride at Occidental is the fact that “we have one of the best safety records in the industry.” As one contact remarks, “The company is serious about continuing to operate its plants both profitably and safely.” Adds another, “Doing our work in a way that is environmentally sound” is also paramount.

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Pacific Gas & Electric Company 77 Beale Street San Francisco, CA 94177 Phone: (415) 973 7000 Fax: (415) 267 7268 www.pge.com

LOCATIONS San Francisco, CA (HQ) With operations throughout California

DEPARTMENTS Accounting and Finance • Bargaining Unit • Business • Clerical • Communications • Construction Management • Corporate Real Estate • Customer Service • Energy Services and Trading • Engineering • Environmental • Fleet Services • Gas Control Technology • Gas Service Rep. • General Services • Government • Human Resources • Information Technology • Legal • Maintenance • Marketing • Materials • Meter Reading/Service Working • Operators • Procurement and Purchasing • Regulatory Relations • RM Technical Test • Safety Health and Claims • Sales • Science • Telecommunications

THE STATS Employer Type: Subsidiary of PG&E Corp. President and CEO: Gordon R. Smith 2003 Employees: 20,300 2003 Revenue ($mil.): $10,438

KEY COMPETITORS PacifiCorp Sempra Energy Southern California Edison

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.pge.com/careers/


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Pacific Gas & Electric Company

THE SCOOP

An ingathering Pacific Gas & Electric Company came to life (or perhaps that should be, came to “light”) in 1852, when the Donahue brothers incorporated their San Francisco Gas Company. The company opened a small power plant in San Francisco two years later, creating the first gas utility in the West. In the 1930s, two other major California utility companies, San Joaquin Light and Power and Great Western Power Company, merged into PG&E. Nowadays, PG&E Company – serving 13 million people over a 70,000-square-mile swath of central and northern California – is the main subsidiary of PG&E Corporation, an energy-based holding company. The corporation is also the current parent of National Energy & Gas Transmission, which as of April 2004 was in the process of splitting off into its own entity after declaring bankruptcy (more on that later).

Tough times As the largest electricity provider in California (the most troubled energy market in the U.S.), PG&E has had its share of bad news in the past few years. It has been plagued by bankruptcy and customer outrage. Even environmentalist Erin Brockovich returned to take another jab at the company, whose denials of contaminated groundwater sparked the 1993 lawsuit that made Brockovich famous. This time, she accused PG&E of using its connections to influence a state scientific panel, which was examining the dangers of a chemical agent used by PG&E and other power companies. (However, one small-town newspaper editor recently claimed Brockovich herself had distorted data: In one of her recent anti-pollution campaigns, she wouldn’t release damning data she had compiled on contaminants until a judge ordered her to do so. It turns out that the data wasn’t damning at all.)

Crisis in Cali The spin off of National Energy & Gas, as well as a number of problems that have plagued PG&E, stem from the California energy crisis. After the deregulation of the state’s energy market in 1996, wholesale energy prices soared unexpectedly, while the rates utility companies could charge customers remained fixed. That meant that the companies – in particular, PG&E as the largest in the state – couldn’t pass on the

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increased cost of doing business to consumers – the utilities got stuck with the financial burden themselves. Rolling blackouts and brownouts ensued, hitting 97,000 PG&E customers one scorching day in June 2000. By April 2001, PG&E Co. had filed for bankruptcy.

Surging on – sort of Being on the brink of financial disaster didn’t stop PG&E Corp. from spending dough on expenses some observers found questionable. For instance, the utility doled out more than $2.8 million on lobbying politicians between January 2001 and April 2003, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. By then, it had been bankrupt for two years and carried debts of $13 billion, which it had yet to start paying back. Nor had it paid shareholders a dividend since filing for Chapter 11. Still, the company courted state lawmakers with trips to sporting events and provided a whopping $57.4 million in bonuses for its managers in 2002. For that year, PG&E Corporation reported a loss of $874 million.

Deluge continues PG&E Corporation was on track to lose the same amount of money in 2003, too. In the first quarter, the parent company was in the red by $354 million, due it said, to higher energy costs at PG&E Company. Even more damaging, it also had to pay out restructuring costs for another subsidiary, National Energy Group, which owned some New England electricity plants. NEG filed for bankruptcy court protection (and then became National Energy & Gas Transmission) in July.

A-one for diversity But even during its darkest hours, PG&E has been a beacon of diversity. The corporation says it “aggressively supports and promotes affirmative action and equal employment opportunity as effective tools to develop a diverse workforce at all levels.” Indeed, it has earned kudos for supplier diversity from the United Nations, the U.S. General Services Administration, the U.S. Department of Commerce and several other organizations. One man in particular is credited for promoting diversity within the company: Charles Shepherd, who started the precursor to what is now called the Supplier Diversity Program. Through the program, PG&E has boosted contracts awarded to businesses headed Asians, Latinos, African Americans, American Indians, disabled veterans and women from $25 million to $334 million. Shepherd has since left the company. Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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The company even promotes its ideal of diversity externally. For about 20 years, PG&E has been sponsoring scholarships for minority students graduating from high school (and some for employees as well) through various employee associations for Asians; blacks; Filipinos; and gays, lesbians, bi-sexual and transgendered workers. Based on high grades and active involvement in the community, the scholarships of about $1,000 each are awarded by the employee associations to several students and are open to people from all racial and ethnic backgrounds who live in a PG&E service area. A women’s employee group awards similar scholarships to employees who are continuing their college studies.

Last in the polls When J.D. Power and Associates released a survey of residential natural-gas customers in October 2003, PG&E Co. found itself tied for last place for customer satisfaction among nine companies in the western region. According to the survey, a bad consumer image was partly to blame, as was the price the company charged for natural gas, which respondents felt was higher than the value of the product itself. A company spokesperson responded to the survey, saying that he believed customers were confusing the natural gas business for problems at the electric utility. For example, some customers lost electricity over the winter, but their natural gas service remained almost entirely free of problems. When results of the next survey were released in October 2004, PG&E had moved up a few notches, with customers rating it seventh out of 10 companies in the region.

A way out After plenty of haggling with California’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) The Utility Reform Network, and a consumer advocacy group, PG&E Co. was finally able to reach a agreement to settle its bankruptcy. In December 2003, the PUC and a bankruptcy court judge approved a reorganization plan that will take nine years to complete. In the short term, consumers will start to see lower rates for electricity – by at least 7 percent – but will ultimately bear the brunt of the debt. Overall, ratepayers themselves will shell out $7 to $8 billion of PG&E’s $12 billion debt, averaging at least $1,458 per customer, while shareholders pay about $2 billion through a dividend freeze. Still, though, executives at PG&E came out ahead. The restructuring plan grants 17 current and former PG&E Corp. executives more than $83 million in special cash payments. In addition, two investment banks that arranged the company’s refinancing will get paid about $100 million for their

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services. In March 2004, the company announced that it had satisfied conditions of reorganization and that would allow it to emerge from bankruptcy by mid-April.

Another upside Coming out of bankruptcy this year allows PG&E to get back into its usual level of shareholder-funded charitable donations to community nonprofits. The company says that in the past, it has given money to more than 800 local nonprofit organizations every year, concentrating on Northern and Central California. “After several years of challenges for our company, PG&E is pleased to be re-energizing our support for nonprofit organizations and bringing positive energy back into the California communities where we live and work,” commented the company’s director of charitable giving, Dan Quigley, in a press release following the announcement. Some past recipients of the much-needed funds have been projects that bring on PG&E employees as volunteers for environmental causes, teacher training programs and the installation of energy efficient refrigerators in food banks in at least 13 cities across the state. The company says that in 2004, it will double its 2003 shareholder donations of $7.6 million, and that its long-term goal is to dole out $60 million from 2004 to 2009.

Taking the blame In late December 2003, just as local businesses were starting to cash in on the holiday rush, about a third of San Francisco, or 120,000 customers, lost their electricity. It took almost 30 hours to get the power back on, but by then, businesses had lost valuable dollars during the busiest season. Within days, PG&E had stepped up to accept responsibility for the severity of the outage. A fire at an unmanned PG&E substation had sparked the outage. When it ignited, alarms rang out. But PG&E workers didn’t show up in response for almost two hours.

GETTING HIRED

Aim high Employees at PG&E can expect to be paid competitive rates and, if union members, receive regular raises at scheduled intervals according to contract. They may also Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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receive incentives for meeting company and individual goals – in addition to “spot awards,” which immediately recognize special achievements and are open to all employees. The benefits package looks good, too: it includes flexible spending accounts for health care for employees and their dependents. Employees in certain positions also get to take advantage of a casual dress policy.

Professional development PG&E offers a broad array of well-developed personal and career development programs. There are opportunities to rotate to various jobs within the company, enabling employees to flex their mental muscles and increase their skills. Employees can also take advantage of company-sponsored career development classes in the technical, business and leadership fields, as well as certificate classes that emphasize physical training for the operation and maintenance of the natural gas and electricity facilities, where safety is emphasized. PG&E often reimburses the costs of similar classes taken outside the company.

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Schlumberger Ltd. 153 E. 53rd St. 57th Floor New York, NY 10172 Phone: (212) 350-9400 Fax: (212) 350-9457 www.slb.com

LOCATIONS New York, NY (HQ) Paris, France The Hague, The Netherlands With additional offices in over 100 countries

DEPARTMENTS Administrative • Business Development • Consulting • Customer Service • Economics • Engineering • Field operations • Finance • Geology • Geophysics • Geosciences • Hardware Engineering • Human Resources • Legal • Maintenance • Manufacturing • Marketing and Sales • Network Consulting • Petroleum Engineering • Production Engineering • Research and Development • Reservoir Engineering • Seismology • Software Engineering • Supply Chain • Systems Engineering • Technical support • Telecommunications

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: SLB Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman and CEO: Andrew Gould 2003 Employees: 77,000 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $13,892.6

KEY COMPETITORS Baker Hughes BJ Services Halliburton

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.slb.com/careers


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Schlumberger Ltd.

THE SCOOP

Supplying the world’s oil Schlumberger Limited is the world’s largest oilfield services company supplying technology, project management and information solutions to the oil and gas industry. The company comprises two primary business segments – Schlumberger Oilfield Services and WesternGeco. Schlumberger Oilfield Services supplies a wide range of products and services that support industry exploration and refining operations. WesternGeco, jointly owned with Baker Hughes, is the world’s largest seismic company and provides advanced acquisition and data processing surveys. The company’s core business, oil field drilling, is vulnerable to the energy industry’s boom and bust cycle. The company employs more than 50,000 people in 100 countries. Schlumberger’s principal offices are in Paris, The Hague and in New York, where it is headquartered. Revenue in 2003 was $11.5 billion.

C’est magnificent For much of the oil industry’s early history exploration companies pretty much depended on trial and error and luck to find new sources of black gold. That is until 1912 when Conrad Schlumberger conceived the revolutionary idea of using electrical measurements to map subsurface rock bodies. Finding oil suddenly became a lot easier. Conrad and his brother Marcel opened their first office in Paris in 1920. In 1923, the brothers began conducting geophysical surveys in Romania, Serbia, Canada, the Union of South Africa, the Belgian Congo and U.S. Later that decade, they incorporated their business and formed Société de Prospection Electrique, the pre-cursor of Schlumberger Limited. During the 1930s, the company continued to expand and to innovate. Its exploration technology enabled oil companies from Venezuela to India to the United States to pump increasing amounts of oil from the deeper and deeper wells. In 1940, the company moved its headquarters to Houston, the heart of the U.S. oil industry.

IT consulting business sold at a loss In January 2004, Schlumberger sold a majority stake in SchlumbergerSema, an IT Consulting firm, to the French IT Group Atos Origin. The SchlumbergerSema

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business unit was formed in 2001 when Schlumberger acquired IT consultancy Sema and merged the new group with its own test and transaction business. The deal netted Schlumberger $1.5 billion, including $500 million in cash and 19.3 million Atos Origin common shares. In February 2004, Schlumberger reduced its ownership in Atos Origin to 14 percent. The sale of the Sema businesses marked the end of a disappointing diversification for Schlumberger, which purchased Sema at the top of the market in early 2001 in an attempt to smooth out the cyclical nature of its oil business. The company booked a multibillion-dollar loss on the sale of Sema. Post Sema, Schlumberger’s CEO Andrew Gould says that the company would focus on its oil and gas business. He characterizes the company’s future as being “exceptionally bright as the world adds new supply capacity to meet demand and replace production from aging reservoirs.”

Russian roulette In late 2003 Schlumberger signed an agreement to acquire PetroAlliance Services Company Limited, one of the largest oil field services companies in Russia. Schlumberger will initially acquire 26 percent of the company in 2004, with a further 25 percent to be acquired in the second quarter of 2005, and the remaining interest one year later. PetroAlliance was established in 1995 and has steadily expanded its activities to include seismic, wireline logging and perforating, directional drilling, pumping, integrated project management, and information management and IT-related services. PetroAlliance provides services to a number of both Russian and international oil and gas operators.

Going deep, way deep Since its birth in France in the 1920s, Schlumberger has relied on its oil exploration and drilling technical prowess to remain at the top of its industry. In late 2003, the Franco-American company showed why it isn’t about to relinquish that lead. Working with ChevronTexaco, Schlumberger’s Oilfield Services group set a new drilling depth and pressure record for the Gulf of Mexico. Using cutting edge technology, the company drilled an underwater well at a vertical depth of 31,824 feet, exceeding the previous depth record by 700 feet.


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Back in the black Schlumberger returned to profit in the fourth quarter of 2003 from a loss a year earlier, as revenue surged 11 percent. For the full year, Schlumberger reported net income of $383 million in contrast to a net loss of $2.32 billion for 2002. Revenue from oilfield services rose 12 percent to $2.31 billion in the fourth quarter of 2003. According to the company, oilfield-services business was particularly strong in North America, India, Indonesia, Mexico and South America.

Here’s the drill Schlumberger won top recognition by BG Group for a well placement project in Minerva-Hub offshore oil development the southern sector of the North Sea. With 116 submissions from 13 different countries, the project was initially selected as one of nine finalists before being winning the “Alliance with External Parties” category as part of 2004’s BG Chief Executive Innovation Awards. For the Minerva-Hub development wells, BG Group, Schlumberger and GlobalSantaFe designed and built a multilateral sidetrack open-hole to increase well exposure to reservoir sweet-spots and maximize well productivity. The awardwinning technique doubled production in the offshore oil development and reduced expenditures. In early 2004, Schlumberger also introduced PowerDrive X5, its first rugged rotary system with integrated measurements to optimize drilling performance. The system has been designed for hot, tough drilling environments and for reservoirs in which geo-steering is aided by near-bit gamma rays or where tighter total vertical depth control is required. Typically these targets are found in high-altitude or offshore environments. Developed to increase run length, optimize wellbore placement and reduce drilling time, the PowerDrive X5 system provides significant reliability and efficiency gains. The automatic inclination hold and efficient downlink functions minimize needed interaction with the driller to maintain directional control while drilling ahead.

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GETTING HIRED

Hiring process The company’s career web site (www.careers.slb.com/) contains a wealth of information on Schlumberger. The site lists all open positions and allows applicants to search by career area, location and business segment. Resumes may also be submitted online. Schlumberger offers two different kinds of internship experiences. One is geared for Oilfield Engineering and Operations, and one is for those who want to pursue work as engineers, scientists and researchers in other areas. Applications are taken online. For further information see the company’s career web site www.careers.slb.com/oncampus/132_internships.cfm.


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Shell Oil Company One Shell Plaza Houston, TX 77002 Phone: (713) 241-6161 Fax: (713) 241-4044 www.shellus.com

LOCATIONS Houston, TX (HQ) with additional operations worldwide

DEPARTMENTS Administrative/Support • Asset Maintenance and Support • Business Analysis • Business Development • Contract & Procurement • Corporate Finance • Customer Service • Field Engineering • Financial Management (Accounting / Controlling) • Finance - Other (M&A, Investor Relations, etc.) • Geophysics / Geosciences • Health, Safety & Environment • Human Resources • Information Technology • Instrumentation / Electrical Engineering • Legal • Logistics / Supply Chain • Marketing / Sales Medical / Healthcare • Petrophysics • Plant / Refinery / Technology Management • Project Engineering • Project Development • Public Affairs • Research & Development • Reservoir Engineering • Rotating Equipment Engineering • Shipping • Strategy / Portfolio • Tax • Technology Consultancy • Trading • Treasury • Well Engineering

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THE STATS Employer Type: Affiliate of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group President and CEO: Lynn Elsenhans 2003 Employees: 20,474 2003 Revenue ($mil.): $41,468

KEY COMPETITORS BP ChevronTexaco Exxon Mobil

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT Shell People Services, Attraction and Recruitment PO Box 4939 Houston, TX 77210 USA Fax: (713) 241-6844 General Recruitment: [email protected] College Recruitment: [email protected]

© 2005 Vault Inc.

Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Shell Oil Company

THE SCOOP

Chances are, you’ve bought Shell gasoline Shell Oil Company, an affiliate of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, ranks among the top three energy companies in the world and sells one of the most recognizable brands of gasoline in the U.S. Drawing from its oil and gas fields in California, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, Shell Oil currently operates more than 22,000 service stations around the country. Shell Oil also explores for, produces and markets oil, natural gas, chemicals and electricity directly to residential and small business customers. Less prominent but fast – growing units in the company, such as Renewables and Shell Hydrogen, are cultivating lower – carbon energy sources like hydrogen fuel. The Royal Dutch/Shell Group has more than 115,000 employees in over 145 countries around the world; Shell Oil’s U.S. headquarters is located in Houston.

Moving coast to coast Holland’s Royal Dutch/Shell Group founded the American Gasoline Company in 1912 to meet the energy demands of the rapidly developing Pacific Northwest. The company flourished quickly, taking over California Oilfields and opening its first independent refinery in Martinez, Calif., in 1915. The success of these initial efforts led to swift expansion nationwide, and a 1922 merger with the Union Oil Company of Delaware formed today’s Shell Union Oil Corporation. The new corporation grew to include many products beyond oil and gas, including petrochemical fertilizers, synthetic rubber, explosives, aircraft fuel, and purified penicillin. Royal Dutch acquired Shell Oil in 1985 but had to pay disgruntled shareholders a $110 million settlement when the shareholders sued, maintaining Shell Oil’s assets had been undervalued in the deal. Today, the companies of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group are in over 145 countries worldwide and are involved in the following businesses: exploration and production; gas and power; oil products; chemicals; and renewables and other, which develops alternative – energy sources.

Ever growing... Following its two highest earnings years in history in 2000 and 2001, Shell set its eyes on expansion in 2002. In May, with the purchase of a portion of Texaco’s assets in the U.S. finalized, Shell launched the largest re-branding effort ever undertaken in the U.S. Texaco retailers and wholesalers operating some 13,000 gas stations are being re-branded as Shell stations. By time the process is completed in June 2004, Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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the company expects to operate about 22,000 stations in the U.S. at a cost of $500 million. This will stand as one of the largest corporate re – brandings in U.S. history.

...and buying In August 2002, Shell agreed to acquire motor oil maker Pennzoil – Quaker State for $1.8 billion. The deal, which the Federal Trade Commission approved in September 2003, called for Shell to pay $22 per share for Pennzoil as well as assume $1.1 billion of Pennzoil’s debt. The deal will make Shell a leader in the U.S. and global lubricants market and strengthen its U.S. oil products business. The downside to this deal, according to some Pennzoil – Quaker State officials, is that it may result in the elimination of about 1,200 jobs and the closing of several oil refineries around the country.

Cuts, consolidation and investment Faced with a worldwide drop in oil prices, Shell was forced to cut both its U.S. and European workforce by 20 percent in 1998. Despite this setback, the company continued to move ahead by forming a number of alliances, such as launching Motiva Enterprises and Equilon Enterprises in 1998. These businesses, founded as partnerships between Shell, Texaco and Saudi Refining, Inc., consolidated marketing and refining operations across the U.S. After the October 2001 Chevron/Texaco merger in which Texaco had to divest its shares in these ventures, Shell and Saudi Refining each assumed 50 percent control over Motiva, while Shell took full control of Equilon, renaming it Shell Oil Products U.S. in March 2002. At the same time, Shell has invested $2.5 billion in several exploration and development projects such as the deepwater Ram/Powell field in the Gulf of Mexico, helping the company become the No.--1 oil producer in the Gulf. Despite earnings of $9.2 billion in 2002, however, the company missed its goals for higher oil and gas production for the year. In continued efforts to cut costs, Royal Dutch/Shell Group announced in March 2003 that it would be slashing about 4,300 jobs, including 225 in Houston, from its global oil and gas exploration division over the next three years. Shell Oil also inked a $500 million deal in July 2003 to sell some of its older oil and gas properties in the British North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico to the U.S. oil and gas company Apache and Morgan Stanley, which is providing debt financing. Other major transactions in 2003 include a joint venture in Pakistan with partners Premier and Kufpec, which have agreed to acquire 50 percent of Shell’s 95 percent share of a deepwater oil exploration license near Karachi, and

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the planned sale by Shell of its oil and gas exploration holdings in Bangladesh to British partner Cairn Energy for $50 million.

Stakes in the Middle East In the late 1990s the Clinton administration briefly considered blocking Shell’s $800 million agreement to redevelop offshore oil fields in Iran, but the deal was completed in 1999 with no interference from the U.S. government. Due to instability in the region, Shell still has to deny rumors it is are selling its stake in the Iranian fields due to U.S. political pressure.

Legal troubles In July 2003, a district court jury found for EOTT Energy in its lawsuit against Shell Oil over a leaky West Texas oil pipeline that polluted the water of local landowners. Houston – based EOTT bought a portion of pipeline from the Texas – New Mexico Pipeline Co., which is owned by Shell, only to find that oil was being leaked into the area water supply. Claiming that Shell knew about the problem but fraudulently withheld information, EOTT attracted widespread attention for the case when it dug up documents in New Mexico that were believed to back up these claims. The Midland, Texas, jury ruled that EOTT should recover cleanup costs for the spill, as well as settlement costs paid to homeowners and legal fees, likely to run to $11 million. In addition, punitive damages were awarded to EOTT in the amount of $50 million. A spokesperson for Shell stated that the company would be filing an appeal. Even more significantly, in August 2003, Shell Oil agreed to pay $49 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. government. Federal prosecutors accused Shell of releasing massive amounts of natural gas from its facilities in the Gulf of Mexico without authorization. From 1994 to 1998, the lawsuit charged, Shell Oil violated the terms of its offshore federal lease by venting or flaring natural gas into the environment that should have been recovered. Besides wasting an enormous amount of gas, up to 15 billion cubic feet, Shell was cited for failing to pay the appropriate royalties. The $49 million payment ranks as the largest settlement of its kind.

Marketing strategies in the new millennium In June 2003, Shell aired a television commercial which touted the reformulated gasoline produced by its Oil Products division as a mileage booster. Pumping $25 million into a massive marketing blitz slated for TV, print, radio and other media, Shell is focusing on pointing out how its new formula will cut down on friction and Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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increase mileage. By appealing to consumers’ sense of value and quality, the company hopes to regain some of the ground it has lost to rival purveyors of lower – cost generic gas. Shell has also taken the lead in deploying cutting – edge technology at its service stations. In 2003, the company’s Oil Products unit announced that it would be joining forces with General Motors Corp., the largest auto manufacturer in the world, to install a hydrogen fuel pump at a filling station near Washington, D.C. While other hydrogen pumps already exist in the U.S., this represents the first time they’ll be mounted at a station by a commercial gasoline company. Shell hopes the pump, which will dispense the clean – burning fuel for a fleet of six GM hydrogen – powered minivans, will be working at one of its stations by October 2003. Shell also has a fully automated fuel pump at a filling station in Elk Grove, CA. Called a “Smart Pump,” the robot fueling system relies on electronic sensors and software to fill up gas tanks efficiently. The prototype was tested in different climatic conditions, and the company hopes to introduce its Smart Pump nationally over the next few years.

GETTING HIRED

Getting your foot in the door Shell encourages applicants to submit their materials through the careers section of the company’s web site, located at www.shell.com; click on “Careers & Recruitment” for full details. The company also accepts applications through its regional handling centers, one of which exists in the U.S. Jobseekers will typically have to fill out an application, along with sending a resume; the company tries to contact applicants about interview status within two weeks. After the interview, applicants attend a “Shell Recruitment Day,” with activities like a case study and group exercises, or more simply, a second interview. The recruitment process generally takes about three months, from receipt of the application to notification of employment. Shell recruits from about 50 campuses across the country, usually from what one former Shell recruiter calls “‘program schools’ that historically have graduated many of our most successful employees.” The vast majority of Shell’s professional staff is hired through college recruiting because, as one employee puts it, Shell “has a policy of maintaining a young profile.” Adds another employee, “Except for craftsmen or in 164

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operations, Shell usually only hires people with a degree.” According to one insider, “You’re really better off having the higher education upfront rather than going back later. If you can be hired on as a professional, great, if not, it will be a long road for career advancement. The one bad thing about Shell is that they tend to label you into a career path when you’re hired. Either you are swimming upstream, downstream or in a race boat. It really doesn’t change much even if you go back for advanced degrees.” The college interviews typically last about 30 minutes, with the best applicants (graduates with a 3.5 GPA or better) invited for a day – long visit to a Shell location for final interviews. Says the former recruiter, “The student would meet and discuss career possibilities with folks they would be working with, including some relatively new people that probably were from the previous college year’s recruiting process and know first – hand what you are going through.” “They did a personality profile and gave me tests to see if I could spell my name correctly,” jokes one employee. “The interview process tests your specific knowledge about your studies and how you react with others – in other words, are you a team player and how much of a team player you will be?" Applicants should include their GPA from college or professional school on their resumes. Shell also accepts staff referrals and local requests for employment interviews. Says the former recruiter, “Although the energy sector is going through some tough times now, Shell historically has continued to hire new staff even in periods of static staff levels” throughout the rest of the industry. The web site states the company is aiming to recruit 565 graduates in 2002 and 580 graduates for 2003 globally. Technical positions demand an engineering or science degree, but requirements vary for other jobs that are widely available in commercial fields like finance and human resources. Successful applicants are typically first assigned a job in their home country, which can last anywhere from two to four years, but they may have to be willing to relocate down the line. Although Shell accepts applications on a year – round basis, September and October are the best months for students meeting company recruiters. Jobseekers already in the workforce are welcome, provided they have been out of school with a bachelor’s or master’s of science degree for up to five years outside the U.S. (up to three years in the U.S.) and have no more than five years of related work experience. Internships and co – ops are also available; the application process is the same as for full – time jobs. Shell also offers extensive mentorship and training programs for new employees, as well as innovative recruitment initiatives to top college students, like an interactive


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business course that teaches business strategy and cooperative thinking and scholarships for individual development.

Diversity counts In 2003, Lynn Elsenhans was named the new CEO and country chair of Shell Oil. Not only is she the first female CEO of the U.S. arm of the company, she also follows two other women in executive appointments during the year. Judy Boynton was promoted to Shell’s executive board, while Linda Cook was installed as president and CEO of Shell Canada. Several publications had previously recognized the company for its efforts in 2001, including The Advocate, which singled out Shell as one of the best places to work for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees; HR Magazine has recognized Shell for its diversity programs. The company is widely known for setting industry standards to encourage diversity within the workplace and to increase support for women and minority employees.

OUR SURVEY SAYS

Harnessing talent and potential Shell employees benefit from the company’s “international renown” and an “impressive” pay scale. “Shell seems to be the best of the major oil companies to work for,” says one employee. Shell management encourages “multi-talented” employees to work in a variety of careers; one employee reports working in research, operations, human resources and finance during his 19-year tenure at Shell. Says another employee, “Shell provides for a highly competitive environment where your full potential will be harnessed to the hilt. They provide a career path which rewards high performers.”

A time of uncertainty Although the company is still healthy, tough economic times have taken a toll. “It’s a time of uncertainty throughout the corporation,” says one insider. “Every oil company is trying to position themselves strategically for long-term low prices and low margins. Shell is doing the same thing.” In addition to low oil prices, chemical product prices decreased in 2001, resulting in lower margins and reduced earnings.

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Sunoco 10 Penn Center 1801 Market St. Philadelphia, PA 19103 Phone: (215) 977-3000 Fax: (215) 977-3409 Toll Free: (800) 786-6261 www.sunocoinc.com

LOCATIONS Philadelphia, PA (HQ) Haverhill, OH Indiana Harbor, IN LaPorte, TX Marcus Hook, PA Neal, VA Nederland, TX Neville Island, PA Pasadena, TX Toledo, OH Tulsa, OK Vansant, VA

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: SUN Stock Exchange: NYSE CEO: John G. Drosdick 2003 Employees: 14,900 2003 Revenue ($mil.): $15,867

KEY COMPETITORS Amerada Hess Motiva Enterprises Shell Oil Products

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.sunocoinc.com/Career_Opps

DEPARTMENTS Admin Staff Chemical HR R&S SPLAM SPLLC SS C/P SS Health, Environment & Safety H/S/S SS MM Sunoco Logistics Partners Sunoco Marketing Transportation


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Sunoco

THE SCOOP

Shining through Sunoco Inc. is an independent oil and refining marketing company based in Philadelphia which employs more than 14,000 people across the country. Sunoco’s operations are organized into five primary business segments: refining and supply, retail marketing, chemicals, logistics and coke. The company also markets its Sunoco brand gasoline through more than 4,800 retail sites selling gasoline and convenience items. Sunoco has interests in 4,500 miles of crude oil and refined product pipelines across the United States. Sunoco, which is involved in a range of petroleum-related businesses, has the capacity to process more than 890,000 barrels of crude oil on a daily basis. Its petroleum refining activities include the manufacturing and marketing of petroleum products, including fuels, lubricants and petrochemicals. The company’s chemical operations include the manufacturing of petrochemicals that are used in the manufacture of fibers, plastics, films and resins.

Energized history Sunoco traces its roots back to 1886, when Joseph Newton Pew and Edward Emerson, who were partners in the Pittsburgh-based The Peoples Natural Gas Company, moved to diversify their business. The company bought two oil leases in Ohio, and through the next few years acquired pipelines and storage tanks. In 1890, the company became Sun Oil Company of Ohio and had by that time branched into refining, shipping and marketing petroleum. In 1902, the first shipment from the Spindletop field in Texas arrived at the company’s Marcus Hook, Pa., refinery aboard the company’s first tanker. Sun established a ship building facility in Chester, Pa., and supplied several tankers during World War I. The company’s first service station opened in 1920 in Ardmore, Pa. It was identified by the name “Sunoco” inside a diamond with an arrow through it – the first version of the company logo. Through the early years of the 20th century, the company diversified its business by forming subsidiaries with stakes in the shipbuilding industry, and forming SperrySun in 1929, a joint venture with Sperry Gyroscope, which brought Sun into the oil field equipment business. In 1937, Sun shook up the refining industry by commercializing the catalytic cracking process developed by a French engineer. The process enabled Sun to develop a higher octane fuel, Nu Blue Sunoco. Catalyst

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refining also enabled Sun to produce the high-octane aviation fuel used by Allied aircraft during World War II. By the end of the war, Sun Oil was making more 100octane gas than any other refiner in the world.

Growth and streamlining The company sold off Sperry-Sun in 1981. In 1988, Sun disposed of its domestic oil and gas production and exploration properties to focus on refining and marketing. The company acquired several refineries in the early-to-mid 1990s, and in 1998, the company adopted its present moniker, Sunoco. In January 2001, Sunoco bought Aristech Chemical from Mitsubishi for $695 million. The acquisitions, which included five chemical plants and a research and technology center, give Sunoco the ability to produce 1.5 billion pounds of polypropylene annually. In January 2004, Sunoco announced that it had completed its acquisition of the Eagle Point refinery from El Paso Corp. The refinery is located in Westville, N.J., across the Delaware River from Sunoco’s Philadelphia refining complex. The oil refiner, gas retailer and chemical manufacturer paid $111 million for the refinery. Sunoco also paid $138 million for inventories on hand at the refinery when it closed. The acquisition increases Sunoco’s total refinery processing capacity by 20 percent. The company estimates the refinery will earn $65 million per year after taxes, based on the average refining margins from 2000 through 2003.

Retail details In July 2002, the company agreed to acquire supply contracts for 75 Coastal Corp from an El Paso Corp. subsidiary. distributor. The contracts cover 460 locations in the U.S., and the acquisitions are part Sunoco’s interest in expanding its retail site and supply networks. The July 2002 pact mirrors an earlier deal in which Sunoco acquired 65 Coastal Mart retail operations and assumed supply contracts with two dozen distributors covering 163 locations in the southeastern part of the U.S. in June 2001. Then in February 2003, Sunoco announced that it had signed a $140 million agreement with Speedway SuperAmerica LLC, a subsidiary of Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, to purchase 193 of Speedway SuperAmerica’s direct retail sites in the Southeast U.S. All of the sites are company-operated locations with convenience stores, with 115 sites located in Florida, 62 in South Carolina, 13 in North Carolina and three in Georgia. The stores were re-branded as Sunoco gasoline and APlus convenience stores. But that was just a warm-up for what was to come next. In Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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January 2004, the Baltimore Business Journal reported that the company had inked an even bigger deal – the purchase of 385 retail outlets in Delaware; Maryland; Washington, D.C.; and Virginia from ConocoPhillips for $187.4 million.

Money matters In announcing its 2003 earnings in January 2004, the company also announced that it expects to see its annual income increase by about $100 million in 2004 due to acquisitions made in 2003. The Eagle Point and Speedway SuperAmerica acquisitions retail sites are expected to boost net income. The company said it increased its total production in 2003, the third consecutive year for such an increase. Sunoco plans $750 million of capital spending in 2004, up from $425 million in 2003. Of this, the refining and marketing unit will spend $425 million, compared with $245 million in 2003. Sunoco also plans to spend $175 million to upgrade its refineries to meet new federal specifications for clean fuels. It spent $23 million in 2003 on clean-fuel upgrades.

Troubled times and a turnaround In January 2004, Sunoco said its earnings dropped 40 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003, missing analysts’ estimates, as refining volumes dropped, costs rose and the company had to charge expenses related to the sale of part of its chemicals business to BASF AG. Earnings sagged to $36 million, from $61 million in the fourth quarter of 2002. However, revenue for the quarter actually rose 12 percent to $4.5 billion from $4 billion a year earlier. There has been a huge bright spot for the company, though: For the entire year 2003, Sunoco earned $335 million, versus a loss of $25 million in the comparable 2002 period. The increase in earnings was primarily due to significantly higher margins in the refining and supply, retail marketing and chemicals business units. Higher refined product sales volumes also contributed to the improved results. This upward trend has continued into 2004 – Sunoco achieved a record level of earnings during the first nine months of the year.

A legal dispute Sunoco has experienced additional problems in the form of a discrimination lawsuit alleging that African-American employees in Philadelphia-area facilities had been systematically denied promotions in favor of whites when both were similarly qualified for a specific position. Originally filed in 2001, the case has inched through the courts. In July 2003, the plaintiffs succeeded in being granted class-action status, meaning that other employees who met certain criteria could be included in the case. 170

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But the two sides were able to come to terms, reaching an out-of-court settlement in 2004. The company issued this statement after the agreement was reached: “We do not believe there was merit in this case, but we decided that it was in the best interest of the company and our employees to settle the matter. The company’s interests are best served by continuing its focus on fair and consistent human resources practices. Through these practices we can better manage our workforce and attract, develop and retain our diverse talent. We feel good about the progress we have made in the representation of African Americans in both supervisory and management positions.”

Gentlemen, start your engines! Following the merger of Conoco and Phillips Petroleum, the new company decided to end its relationship with NASCAR. Sunoco recognized a good opportunity, and in 2004forged a deal to become the “official fuel of NASCAR.” Sunoco was already a supplier for the racing circuit’s Dodge Weekly Series racing events; now Sunoco has a 10-year agreement to supply fuel for three other NASCAR series.

Sell off In January 2004, the company announced that it completed the sale of its plasticizer operations in Texas to BASF for $90 million. Sunoco says the sale included its plasticizer operations – which add materials to plastics to make them pliable – in Pasadena and Texas and related inventory. The sale did not include Sunoco’s plant on Neville Island in Pittsburgh, which the company says will continue to producer plasticizer materials and provide services to BASF.

GETTING HIRED Hiring overview Sunoco recruits at a number of the top regional schools in the Delaware Valley area, including Drexel, Lehigh and Temple universities, as well as at schools in Texas and Oklahoma. Check out the site at www.sunocoinc.com for more detailed recruiting information. There is also information regarding the associate training program for recent engineering and finance grads. Job seekers can peruse listings online at the site. For the post-undergrad crowd, the company also lists opportunities in various departments and locations. Job seekers can search the listings by job title, location, keyword and department.


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TXU Corp. THE STATS Energy Plaza, 1601 Bryan St. Dallas, TX 75201-3411 Phone: (214) 812-4600 Fax: (214) 812-7077 www.txucorp.com

LOCATIONS Dallas, TX (HQ) Ft. Worth, TX Waco, TX Melbourne, Australia

DEPARTMENTS Billing & Revenue Recovery • Claims & Legal • Communications • Craft Distribution/Transmission • Craft Mining • Craft - Production • Craft Worker • Customer Operations • Customer Service • Dispatcher • Energy Delivery/Services/Trading • Engineering • Environmental • Finance & Accounting • Gas Operations • Human Resources • Information Technology • Labor Worker • Legal • MBA Associate • Meter Reader/Warehouse Attendant Nuclear Operations • Pipeline Operations • Procurement • Project Management/Planning • Rates & Regulatory • Revenue Management Sales/Marketing • Secretarial/General Office • Security Service Work • Student Electrician • Student Technician • Technical • Training • TXU Retail

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Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: TXU Stock Exchange: NYSE President, CEO and Director: C. John Wilder 2003 Employees: 14,235 2003 Revenue ($mil.): $11,008

KEY COMPETITORS AEP CenterPoint Energy Reliant Energy

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT Mr. Richard Wistrand 1601 Bryan Suite 03-008 Dallas, TX 75201-3411 Fax: (214) 812-8419 E-mail: [email protected]

© 2005 Vault Inc.

Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers TXU Corp.

THE SCOOP

Delivering energy Dallas-based TXU Corporation delivers energy to more than five million customers in the United States and Australia. The company is active in a number of different sectors of the energy industry, including electric generation, transmission and distribution; local retail electric operations; energy services; and wholesale power trading. TXU endured a staggeringly bad year in 2002. After the company’s TXU Europe unit filed for bankruptcy, the parent company was forced to write off nearly $5 billion in assets. But things began to turn around for TXU in 2003 as a return to profitability restored investor confidence. In 2004 the company gained a new CEO and began a sweeping restructuring plan aimed at restoring TXU to its former glory.

Texan connection With the dissolution of TXU’s European business group, the company’s remaining operations are focused on the United States (Texas, in particular) and Australia, though an ongoing corporate restructuring program means that the picture will likely look quite different in the near future. The company is organized into two broad, geographically based groups: TXU U.S. Holdings and TXU Australia Group. The American unit contains a number of subsidiary operating companies. TXU Energy is an electric utility company serving approximately 2.7 million customers in Texas. It owns or controls more than 18,000 megawatts of generating capacity and is also home to the company’s wholesale energy trading unit. All of TXU Energy’s activities are conducted in unregulated markets. When Texas deregulated its utility industry in 2002, TXU formed a separate subsidiary called Oncor Electric Delivery Company to conduct its regulated transmission and distribution operations. Oncor owns the assets that make up TXU’s power grid, including more than 14,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines and nearly 99,000 miles of distribution lines. Meanwhile, in Australia, the company offers a similar slate of products and services, including electric generation and gas and electric utility service for one million customers. TXU Australia operates primarily in the states of South Australia and Victoria (which includes Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city).


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Lone Star power In the first half of the 20th century, most of Texas was served by one of three utilities: Texas Power & Light (founded in 1912), Dallas Power & Light (founded in 1917) and Texas Electric Service (Founded in 1929). In 1945, the Texas Utilities Company (TU), a holding company, was formed and each of the three utilities joined the organization as subsidiary operating companies. Up until the 1990s, the utility industry was a rather static one, though TU did achieve a few notable milestones during these years, including an expansion into lignite mining in the 1950s and the start of construction on the Comanche Peak nuclear reactor in rural Somervell County (about 50 miles outside of Fort Worth) in 1974. In 1984, the company underwent a corporate re-organization and its three utilities were formally merged into one company, known as Texas Utilities Electric (TU Electric).

Worldwide expansion TU Electric experienced a dramatic growth spurt in the 1990s, beginning with its 1993 acquisition of the Southwestern Electric Service Co. (SESCO). The deal expanded the company’s presence in central and eastern Texas, and solidified its status as the dominant utility in the state. Three years later, TU Electric established a presence in the Australian electric market with its purchase of Eastern Energy and also acquired fellow Texas-based energy company ENSERCH. Among the assets acquired in the ENSERCH deal were Lone Star Gas, the state’s largest gas provider, as well as energy services and energy trading operations. Next, TU Electric set its sights on the telecommunications industry, adding Lufkin-Conroe in 1997. The company spent more than $10 billion in 1998 to acquire the U.K.-based Energy Group, marking its entry into the European market for the first time. The acquisition of two more Australian companies, Westar and Kinetic Energy, in 1999 prompted a new identity for the now-sprawling energy giant – TXU Corp. The company peaked in size the following year with the expansion of its British operations to include Norweb Energi and United Utilities’ electric and gas supply operations. TXU’s 1990s spending spree had expanded its reach from a regional to global level, but it had also leveraged the company’s debt to uncomfortably high levels. As a result, TXU began shedding some of its less productive assets between 2000 and 2002. It received $960 million from Pinnacle One Partners in 2000 for the contribution of its telecommunications assets to a new 50/50 joint venture. The following year, Exelon paid $443 million for two TXU power plants in Texas. Other divestitures during this period included its natural gas processing business, its U.K.based gas metering business, the distribution operations of Eastern Energy and 174

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generating assets in Britain. TXU also sold off minority stakes in a number of energy-related investments such as utility companies in Spain and the Czech Republic, as well as gas fields in the North Sea.

Trouble mounts TXU’s financial woes began in late 2002 in its European business group. Rising natural gas supply prices combined with falling retail receipts due to competition in the British market forced the company to drastically cut its earnings estimate. Investors were further unnerved in October 2002 by an 80-percent reduction in TXU’s dividend – from $2.40 to just $0.50. Just weeks after the dividend cut, it became clear to the company’s board that TXU Europe was a hopeless cause, and it reversed an earlier decision to prop up the European unit with a $700 million cash infusion. Late in October, the company sold its U.K.-based retail supply and generation operations to Powergen for $2.9 billion (including assumed debt), leaving TXU Europe with just limited operations in Scandinavia and Germany. The following month, TXU Europe came under “administration” status (the equivalent of bankruptcy under British law) and the parent company wrote off the whole of its European investment. When TXU announced its fourth quarter 2002 earnings in February 2003, it showed a loss of $4.88 billion. Unsurprisingly, that represented the worst financial quarter in the company’s history. For the year, TXU’s loss totaled $4.23 billion, or $15.23 per share. The company’s debt was downgraded to junk status and investors headed for the exits. After trading at around $41 per share in October 2002, TXU’s stock sunk to just $18 share in February 2003.

From the corporate police blotter Adding to the company’s troubles, TXU found itself embroiled in a couple of highprofile lawsuits in 2003, both of which involved alleged malpractice at TXU’s energy trading unit. The first suit was filed by William Murray, a former TXU employee, in April 2003. In it, Murray alleges he was fired from the company after speaking out about possible accounting misdeeds and public disclosure violations at the company’s power trading business. The case has been closely followed because it is believed to be the first test of the “whistleblower” provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act – the corporate accounting reform law passed in the wake of the Enron and Andersen scandals – to reach trial. TXU has denied Murray’s allegations, and the suit is still ongoing.


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The other lawsuit involving TXU revolves around accusations made by Mike Shirley, CEO of Texas Commercial Energy (TCE), a small Texas-based power trading company. In July 2003, Shirley filed an antitrust lawsuit against TXU, Reliant Energy, American Electric Power and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), accusing the defendants of a conspiracy to manipulate market prices by causing artificial shortages and thereby forcing smaller players – such as TCE – out of the market. Shirley’s company is now in bankruptcy due to the market volatility and price spikes that occurred in the Texas power market between February 24 and February 26, 2003. The period of time in question followed an ice storm that paralyzed the state and caused natural gas supplies to run short. At one point on February 25, prices shot up from $300 to $990 in just a 15-minute time span. Typical prices fall within the range of $40-$50. TCE was forced to buy energy at the inflated price to fulfill its contracts with its customers, and the added expense sent the company into bankruptcy. In its own defense, TXU maintains that TCE relied too heavily on the spot market for its energy supplies and that the company should have protected itself with a higher proportion of longer-term supply deals. After the suit was filed, the Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUC) opened an investigation into Shirley’s allegations. In January 2004, the PUC released the preliminary results of its probe, which didn’t uncover evidence substantiating TCE’s claims. One month later, however, TCE amended its lawsuit to include two new plaintiffs, Cirro Energy and Utility Choice Electric, both of which are fellow smallscale power trading operations. TCE also introduced audio tapes into evidence which reportedly record TXU and Dynegy traders making comments such as, “get them prices up", “some of the small folks got hurt last week", and “that could bankrupt someone.” Shirley claims that the tapes prove that TXU was engaging in a market manipulation scheme similar to the one perpetrated on California customers in 2000. TXU representatives maintained the company’s innocence and claimed the tapes were taken out of context. TXU was vindicated to some extent when a federal judge ruled in June 2004 that the PUC had the authority to define the rules for setting utility rates and that TXU and the other defendants had not broken those rules. Although good news for TXU and the other parties named in the suit, they shouldn’t break out the champagne just yet: TCE has vowed to keep the fight going and has filed an appeal.

Regaining its footing After hunkering down and posting modest profits through 2003, TXU began 2004 with a flurry of activity aimed at getting back on course. In January 2004, TXU

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reached an agreement to sell its TXU Communications business to Consolidated Communications for $527 million (including $3 million in assumed debt). TXU Communications had provided a range of telecom services, including local, longdistance, dial-up and DSL Internet and data networking services to eastern Texas and the Houston metro area. TXU plans to use the proceeds to pay down its debt. In February 2004, the company released its earnings report for the 2003 fiscal year. The numbers showed a welcome return to profitability, with $560 million in earnings for the full year ($1.62 per share). While that total is short of the profits earned in the years prior to TXU Europe’s collapse – when earnings were consistently between $2.50 and $3.50 per share – it nonetheless came as welcome news to TXU investors. By mid-October 2004, the company’s stock had made a dramatic turnaround and was trading at a little over $50.

Wilder makes a splash The biggest news to come out of Dallas, though, was the announcement in late February 2004 that C. John Wilder had been named the new CEO of TXU. Wilder is the first outsider to lead the company in its history; he most recently served as CFO at New Orleans-based Entergy. Wilder received high marks from industry experts for the job he did at Entergy, having arrived there in 1998 as part of a turnaround team that went on to post 14 percent annual earnings growth and a doubling of its stock price over the ensuing five years. Now, TXU’s new chief is being asked to perform a similar resuscitation job in Texas. Wilder wasted no time in getting down to work. During his first conference call as CEO, he unveiled an ambitious plan to restore TXU’s financial health: cutting $4.4 billion from the company’s $12.2 billion debt load and raising earnings per share by 35 percent to $2.75 by 2006. Wilder also signaled his intention to re-emphasize customer service and expand the company’s power trading business. Wall Street was thrilled with TXU’s CEO choice and sent the company’s shares zooming past the $28 level in the days following the announcement. One of Wilder’s objectives was to extend the company’s stock market price – a goal he’s already met. Though his base salary totals “only” $1.25 million per year, his contract with TXU includes weighty performance incentives that mean he’ll earn more if TXU’s shares hit certain price targets over the next three years.

Customer commitment In March 2004, TXU demonstrated that Wilder’s talk of better customer service was no mere lip service. That month, the company announced that it would open a brandVisit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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new customer service call center in Sugar Land (near Houston) later in 2004. TXU’s customer service staff was one of the areas that was cut to save money in 2003, but the company now admits that doing so was a mistake. The Sugar Land office will employ as many as 400 people, and TXU said that it would add an additional 200 staffers at its existing customer service centers in Irving and Waco. TXU prides itself on its 24-hour-a-day customer service availability (holidays included), and the company said that the enlarged staff would help reduce customer wait times.

The new TXU By April 2004, CEO Wilder’s vision for the future of TXU had begun to take shape. That month, Wilder announced a sweeping restructuring plan that will transform the company and likely raise close to $8 billion. First, the company announced its plans to sell TXU Australia for $3.72 billion to Singapore Power in a deal expected to close in the third quarter of 2004. Next, an agreement to sell TXU Fuel, its gas transportation unit, to Energy Transfer Partners for $502 million was reached. Finally, the company revealed that it was looking for buyers for its TXU Gas subsidiary, as well. By mid-June, an agreement had been reached to sell the unit to Dallas-based Atmos Energy for $1.9 billion. Though the deal closed just three months later, Atmos has said it will wait until at least February 1, 2005, to change the name of the unit so that customers have time to become accustomed to the change. TXU announced these dramatic developments with breathtaking speed. The moves came just two months after Wilder was hired, and the TXU Australia deal was reportedly negotiated in only 18 days. Part of the proceeds from the sales will be used to repurchase $1.84 billion worth of convertible preferred stock that was issued in the wake of the TXU Europe collapse. Though the issuance was successful in raising cash at that critical juncture, the company would have risked a significant dilution of its equity had it allowed those shares to be converted into common stock. After announcing the divestitures, TXU raised its earnings target for 2004 from $2.15 per share to the $2.45-$2.55 range. Investors were once again pleased with the news, and the company’s shares continued their climb, enabling the company to recover a large chunk of its market value.

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GETTING HIRED

Hiring process Currently, TXU has employees based both in the United States as well as Australia. However, the company’s ongoing pullback from its overseas operations means that going forward most positions will be Texas-based. TXU only accepts resumes submitted online. The company’s web site has a list of available positions that is updated weekly, as well as a calendar of upcoming recruiting events. The company’s benefits package includes medical, dental, life, disability and prescription drug coverage. TXU also offers optional tax-free flexible spending accounts that may be used for either health care or dependent care expenses. Retirement benefits include both a pension plan as well as matching funds for a 401(k) account. Other notable perks include tuition reimbursement, an appliance purchase plan, relocation assistance and a carpool/mass transit pass program.


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Unocal Corporation 2141 Rosencrans Avenue Suite 4000 El Segundo, CA 90245 Phone: (310) 726-7600 Fax: (310) 726-7817 www.unocal.com

LOCATIONS El Segundo, CA (HQ) With additional operations throughout North America and Asia

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: UCL Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman, CEO and President: Charles R. (Chuck) Williamson 2003 Employees: 6,700 2003 Revenue ($mil.): $6,395

KEY COMPETITORS BP ChevronTexaco Exxon Mobil

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT Human Resources E-mail: [email protected] www.unocal.com/careers

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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Unocal Corporation

THE SCOOP

Exploration and production player Unocal is one of the largest oil and gas exploration and production companies in the U.S. The company’s North American energy operations and international energy groups are engaged in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas, as well as project development in the U.S. and in various countries around the world. In 2002, according to the latest figures publicly available, Unocal produced 167,000 barrels of petroleum liquids and 1,826 million cubic feet of gas per day. The company’s geothermal operations group supplies steam for the generation of electricity to power plants with a combined installed capacity of more than 1,100 megawatts. Unocal Midstream & Trade is the company’s asset management and energy marketing business unit. The company’s global trade unit trades oil and gas commodities.

California dreaming The first gasoline-powered automobile had not yet appeared in the West when the Union Oil Company of California (Unocal) was established in October 1890 in Southern California. Founded by Lyman Stewart and Wallace Hardison, Unocal established the West’s first petroleum laboratory and built the world’s first oil tanker in 1903. The oil industry became the driver of economic growth in Southern California, drawing thousands of fortune seekers to the region, not unlike California’s earlier Gold Rush. Today, the company’s original headquarters, a two-story building in the heart of California’s oil country in Santa Paula, is the California Oil Museum. Union service stations multiplied in the 1930s, featuring the “76” logo to conjure up the spirit of America. Union acquired Pure Oil of New Jersey in 1965, doubling its size. The company officially adopted the Unocal name in 1983. Unocal struggled with debt in the following years, and in the early 1990s, sold off some operations. Among the assets sold was Unocal’s network of 140 auto/truckstops, which fetched $180 million in 1993. Under the leadership of Roger Beach, who became CEO in 1995, Unocal sold its oil and gas fields in California and restructured its partnership with Petroleos de Venezuela, leaving Unocal with ownership of Midwest Carbon Company. In 1996, Unocal sold its three California refineries, its 1,350 West Coast gas stations, the rights to the “76” brand, a distribution system and other assets to Tosco for $2 billion. No longer active in the refining and marketing businesses,


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Unocal became one of the largest independent oil exploration and production companies in the world.

Third world issues Unocal is currently battling a long-running human rights case involving a pipeline project in Myanmar. The case hinges on whether the company or any of its subsidiaries can be held liable for human rights abuses allegedly carried out by the Myanmar military in the 1990s to aid in the completion of the $1.2 billion Yadana pipeline project. Plaintiffs’ lawyers have argued that Unocal should be held liable for rape, murder and torture allegedly carried out by the Myanmar military personnel who were there to assist the company’s subsidiaries. A lawyer for the villages that have brought the suit has put forth the argument that the subsidiaries acted as Unocal’s agents or were in a joint venture with the parent company. In a September 2004 hearing, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled that the question of whether the subsidiaries were truly Unocal’s agents is something that should be determined by a jury. The suit being disputed is actually a consolidation of two separate cases that date back to 1996, when the plaintiffs first filed claims in federal court. At that time, a judge found Unocal had no liability and dismissed the federal case, which prompted the plaintiffs to pursue their claims under state law in Superior Court. Unocal’s defense argues that the case wrongly relies on the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act and should be dismissed.

Buying and selling After making a $32.5 million bid for a series of four deepwater lease tracts in the Gulf of Mexico in March 2004, Unocal announced that it was the high bidder in the Central Gulf of Mexico OCS Lease Sale No. 190 conducted by the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS). Unocal currently holds an interest in 365 Gulf of Mexico leases, including 230 deepwater exploratory leases, 72 shelf exploratory leases and 63 development leases. The purchase brings Unocal’s combined portfolio to 369 OCS leases in the Gulf of Mexico. Also in March, Unocal said it had agreed to sell some mineral assets to Black Stone Minerals Co. for about $190 million, in an effort to allow its Pure Resources subsidiary to focus on exploration and production activities. Pure Resources said that the deal includes royalty interests and subsurface mineral rights on about 3.3 million

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acres, primarily in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. The assets produce about 2,250 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

A growing business The company has seen its profits surge in recent years, due to significant deepwater discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico and Indonesia, and restructuring efforts it has undertaken in recent years through selling properties and reducing unit operating costs. For 2003, the company saw earnings of $777 million, more than doubling 2002’s earnings of $331 million. This is on top of the $6.5 billion in revenue the company posted for the year, up from $5.2 billion in 2002.

Plans for the future For the rest of 2004, Unocal expects to maintain an exploration budget of about $325 million, while focusing primarily on deepwater holdings in the Gulf of Mexico and Indonesia. Exploration spending on the deep shelf program in the Gulf represents about 10 percent of the company’s overall spending plan. Over the course of the year, the company is also planning on spending another $930 million on large international crude oil and natural gas development projects that are expected to result in new production in 2004 and 2005. Major international projects include oil and gas development in Thailand, Indonesian deepwater development, Bangladeshi gas field development, oil development (including an export pipeline) in the Caspian Sea and natural gas development in China. In the U.S., Unocal will be completing development of the Mad Dog field in the Gulf of Mexico and beginning development of the oil-rich K2 field in the deepwater of the Gulf.

GETTING HIRED

Want to work abroad? The company does have a careers page on its corporate web site, www.unocal.com, but oddly enough, doesn’t list any domestic job opportunities, benefits, internships, locations, college recruiting events or contact information for the company on it. If you’re looking for a job with the company in Thailand, Indonesia or the Philippines, however, you’re in luck. Unocal has a rundown of its operations in those countries, and includes e-mail addresses to apply for open positions there.


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Valero Energy Corporation One Valero Place San Antonio, TX 78212-3186 Phone: (210) 370-2000 Fax: (210) 370-2646 www.valero.com

LOCATIONS San Antonio, TX (HQ) Ardmore, OK Benicia, CA Corpus Christi, TX Denver, CO Houston, TX Krotz Springs, LA McKee, TX Paulsboro, NJ St. Charles, LA Texas City, TX Three Rivers, TX Wilmington, CA Aruba Jean Gaulin, Quebec

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THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: VLO Stock Exchange: NYSE Chairman, CEO and Director: Bill Greehey 2003 Employees: 19,621 2003 Revenue ($mil.): $37,969

KEY COMPETITORS BP ChevronTexaco ExxonMobil

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT E-mail: [email protected] Phone: (210) 345-2400 valero.hrdpt.com

© 2005 Vault Inc.

Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Valero Energy Corporation

THE SCOOP

Texas gold In a big state full of big oil tycoons, Valero Energy Corporation is one of the biggest players. The Fortune 500 company, headquartered in San Antonio, has the capacity to refine more than 2.4 million barrels of Texas gold per day and revenue of $38 billion. Including its holdings in Valero LP, a limited partnership set up to store and transport Valero Energy Corp.’s products, the company has more than 4,800 miles of pipeline to move crude oil and refined products. Valero is one of the top refining companies in the U.S. It focuses on transforming low-cost residual oil and heavy crude oil into cleaner-burning fuels. It produces, for example, reformulated gasoline, low-sulfur diesel fuel and oxygenates. And the company makes other products, including commercial and military jet fuel, kerosene, home heating and stove oils, petrochemicals, asphalt, industrial and automotive lube oils, sulfur, petroleum coke and propane, just to name a few. The company’s other main business is retail: It’s got about 4,500 retail sites, concentrated in the Southwest and middle of the country, as well as in the Caribbean and much of Quebec and Ontario, under brand names such as Diamond Shamrock, Ultramar, Beacon, Total and of course, Valero.

Crude beginnings Valero sprouted to life on January 1, 1980, as the successor to LoVoca Gathering Co., a natural gas gathering company and a subsidiary of Coastal States Gas Corporation. LoVoca and Coastal had both held contracts to supply natural gas to utility companies around Texas. But the gas shortages of the 1970s had been hard on companies like LoVoca, which couldn’t fulfill the terms of its contracts as the decade wore on. More than six years of litigation ended in a $1.6 billion settlement and the mandated separation of LoVoca from its parent, Coastal. Thus Valero was formed from the ashes of LoVoca, at the time marking the largest corporate spin-off in U.S. history. Once Valero was up and running, it expanded operations into refining with the purchase of a small crude refining plant in Corpus Christi, Texas. In response to a burgeoning worldwide concern for the environment, Valero pumped $1 billion into efforts to modernize its refinery unit. State-of-the-art equipment was added, helping Valero efficiently transform low-cost, “bottom-of-the-barrel” feed stocks into cleanburning fuels. In 1984 the refinery was commissioned and up and running.


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Steady as she goes For nearly two decades, Valero continued growing and diversifying. It kept investing in its refining unit, and also branched out into natural gas services. Then in 1997, it announced an agreement to merge its natural gas operations with PG&E Corporation, spinning off its refining and marketing operations into a new, independent company that would keep the Valero moniker. The same year, Valero bought Basis Petroleum, making it the largest independent refining and marketing company on the Gulf Coast. By then, it owned four refineries in Texas and Louisiana.

Mushrooming In 1997, the company had 700 employees, assets of $2 billion and revenue of $3 billion. Just seven years later, Valero had mushroomed into a 20,000-employee behemoth with $16 billion in assets and $38 billion in revenue. Besides the 1997 acquisitions, the company’s momentous growth is due in large part to the 1998 purchase of a Mobil refinery in Paulsboro, N.J. The acquisition vaulted the company’s standing, making it – with its capacity to process 735,000 barrels per day – the country’s second-biggest independent refining company. Now, Valero had also spread itself all the way to the Northeast. Two years after purchasing the Mobile refinery, Valero once again expanded its reach, this time out to the West coast. It bought up an ExxonMobil refinery in Benicia, Calif., its 270-store retail distribution chain and 80 company-run retail sites. The deal marked the company’s foray into the retail business with the debut of the Valero brand. More West Coast acquisitions followed. In 2001, Valero bought Huntway Refining Company with its two asphalt refineries. Later that year, Valero nearly doubled its size when it snapped up San Antonio-based Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corporation for $5 billion. Valero’s product line was also growing. In 1999, it inked a $90 million deal to let Praxair build, own and operate a hydrogen purification plant. Based in Texas City, Texas, the facility would clean up 69 million cubic feet of hydrogen every day for Valero’s local refineries. Like other gas companies at the time, Valero was seeking to capitalize on the rapidly ballooning hydrogen industry.

Fueling profitability In 2002, energy companies across the board were showing a marked decline in profits. That year, 27 major American energy businesses made almost 50 percent less in profits than they had the previous year. That’s according to a 2002 report – an 186

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annual survey of the companies’ performance profiles – put out by the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy. Oil and gas operations alone had dropped by 21 percent, due in large measure to an excess supply that forced prices downward. The EIA also said profits were hurt by the cessation of energy trading after Enron collapsed. Refining and marketing – a Valero stronghold – also dropped 11 percent in 2002. Even so, Valero hung on and even prospered. By October 2003, CEO Bill Greehey was predicting continued growth through an aggressive capital program and acquisitions. That’s exactly what it did in March 2004, with the purchase of an El Paso Corporation refinery in Aruba in a $715 million deal. Greehey saw an opportunity to increase the record revenue from the previous year. “The timing of this acquisition couldn’t be better,” Greehey is quoted as saying in Octane Week. “We believe 2004 is going to be even better for Valero than last year, which was a record.” Valero planned to improve reliability at its newest refinery. Already, more than $640 million had been pumped into it over the previous five years to improve safety and profitability.

The cost of doing business One place Valero wouldn’t be going, however, was Nigeria. By May 2004, violence in the oil rich country had been on the increase for months as vying rebel factions fought over control of local governments. In Port Harcourt, a main oil city with a refining complex, nine people were killed by “suspected political thugs,” according to Reuters. And the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had been at odds with unions, which were threatening to hamper plans for privatization by discouraging investors. Pipelines had been sabotaged repeatedly. It’s no wonder, then, that in May 2004, Valero pulled out of a consortium that was planning to bid on the privatization of the Port Harcourt operations. Nigeria may be the seventh biggest oil exporter in the world, but it has to import most of its gasoline because its refining sector is in such disarray.

Striking it rich Back at home, across San Antonio, corporate executives were being compensated in record amounts at the beginning of the new millennium. Greehey topped the list. In 2003, he took home a whopping total of $20.6 million. Only about $1.35 million of that was his salary, but he also got a $2.45 million bonus for “exceeding goals” – presumably, his ability to extract record revenue out of that year’s dry economy. His


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big bucks came from an award of 275,000 shares of restricted stock, which, valued at $10.8 million, would pay out over the following three years. He also got $4 million out of long-term performance shares and exercised stock options for $1.7 million. But does all that cheese at the top leave lower-echelon workers scrounging for scraps, shareholders out in the cold, and employees’ retirement savings in the trash bin? That’s what unions and other groups say happens when executive compensation reaches extravagant heights. But at Valero, there has been little sign of such repercussions: As of May 2003, Valero had never had even one layoff – even through all its mergers and acquisitions in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. What’s more, shareholders saw a 161 percent return on their investments from 1999 to 2004, during a spell when the S&P fell by 6 percent.

GETTING HIRED

Full of pride In 1998, nobody in San Antonio was offering employee benefits to domestic partners, according to the San Antonio Express-News. But six years later, Valero began the practice. Along with SBC Communications, it’s the largest employer in the area to offer medical, dental, vision, and life insurance to unmarried domestic partners, gay or straight. (Actually, the vast majority, about two-thirds, of partner benefits are used by heterosexual couples.) That kind of perk is one of the reasons why Valero won the 2004 Pride Award, a prize handed out by The Great Place to Work Institute, which is the organization that compiles Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For in America.” Based mostly on confidential employee input, the award recognizes a company that does an outstanding job of fostering pride among its workers. “When you consider the fact that we have had such explosive growth over the past six years, the fact that we have been able to maintain Valero’s special culture and enjoy such high employee morale is even more amazing,” Greehey told Convenience Store News. The prize also took into account a strong culture of volunteering and giving to local charities and nonprofits. Valero’s ranking has moved up every year – it’s now at the No. 32 spot – since it first appeared on the list in 1999. The company was also one of only five firms in the country to earn the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2002 Exemplary Voluntary Efforts award, which recognizes federal contractors who, among other things, go to extra lengths to ensure workplace diversity. 188

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Williams Companies, The One Williams Center Tulsa, OK 74172 Phone: (918) 573 2000 Fax: (918) 573 6714 www.williams.com

LOCATIONS Tulsa, OK (HQ) Bloomfield, NM Denver, CO Frazer, PA Green River, WY Houston, TX Larose, LA Mount Mourne, NC Pasco, WA Plaquemine, LA Ragley, LA Reidsville, NC Salt Lake City, UT Wadley, AL

THE STATS Employer Type: Public Company Stock Symbol: WMB Stock Exchange: NYSE CEO: Steven J. Malcolm 2003 Employees: 4,800 2003 Revenue ($ mil.): $16,834.1

KEY COMPETITORS Dynegy El Paso Exxon Mobil

EMPLOYMENT CONTACT www.williams.com/careers/

DEPARTMENTS Accounting Administrative/Clerical Engineering Environmental Health/Safety Operations Planning/Business Development Professional Administrative Sales/Marketing Technical Trading


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Vault Guide to the Top Energy & Oil/Gas Employers Williams Companies, The

THE SCOOP

Pipe dreams Since 1908, Williams has supplied natural energy and advanced technology in the United States. The company has operations in oil and gas exploration and production, and also gathers, stores and processes gas and liquids. Williams also operates more than 26,000 miles of pipeline, including the Transco System, a line that stretches from Texas to New York. Williams was founded by brothers Miller and David Williams as a small construction firm, to build cross-country natural gas and petroleum pipelines in Fort Smith, Ark. By the time the brothers relocated to Tulsa, Okla., in 1919, they had a reputation for quality work. For more than 60 years, the company did business as Williams Brothers. The company finally changed its name to The Williams Companies, Inc. in the 1970s after a spate of acquisitions had transformed it into a diversified company that had a finger in various aspects of the natural energy business.

A few big acquisitions In 1966, Williams bought the Great Lakes Pipe Line Company – the largest petroleum product pipeline in the U.S. at that time – for $287 million. It picked up Northwest Energy Company in 1982, enabling the company to build interstate natural gas systems across the nation. Williams purchased Transco Energy Company in 1995, expanding the natural gas transportation system to the East Coast. This acquisition established Williams as one of the largest-volume transporters of natural gas in the United States. It acquired MAPCO in 1998, bringing refining, natural gas pipelines and travel centers into the Williams family corporation. In addition to its core energy operations, Williams constructed a 33,000-mile fiber optic telecom network along its pipelines. This network was part of Williams Communications Group, which was spun off in 2001, and which would later cause the company no small consternation and adversely affect its bottom line. Also in May 2001, Williams acquired Barrett Resources, an independent exploration and production company, in a transaction valued at $2.8 billion, including $300 million of debt owed by Barrett. The deal more than doubled Williams’ U.S. natural gas reserves.

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Some hard times Through the end of the 1990s and into the new millennium, Williams soared as the energy trading markets brought in big bucks. But by 2002, Williams found itself traveling a rocky road. That year, the company took a charge of more than $2 billion against earnings related to its ownership stake in Williams Communications, which declared bankruptcy in early 2002. By July, Williams faced downgrades from credit ratings agencies and steep losses tied to exposure to its merchant trading and communications operations. The company also engaged in some layoffs and sales of assets that reduced the total number of employees from approximately12,400 at the end of 2001 to approximately 3,700 as of November 2004.

The Williams Communications mess Despite generating some $287 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2000, posting increased revenue for 16 consecutive quarters and expanding operations into Japan in 2001, Williams’ former telecom subsidiary soon found itself in trouble. Williams, of course, wasn’t alone. It was in the same boat as many other broadband companies that faced financial troubles in the early 2000s due to overbuilding of networks in anticipation of a demand for services that hadn’t lived up to earlier projections. In 2002, Williams Companies settled all claims and disputes between it and Williams Communication Group, (WCG) as part of WCG’s Chapter 11 reorganization. Prior to the 2001 spin off, Williams also provided indirect credit support for $1.4 billion of WCG’s structured notes. In March 2002, Williams received the requisite approvals on its consent solicitation to amend the terms of the WCG structured notes. The amendment, among other things, eliminated acceleration of the notes due to a WCG bankruptcy. With the exception of the March and September 2002 interest payments, totaling $115 million, WCG remained indirectly obligated to reimburse Williams for any payments required to make in connection with the WCG structured notes. In March 2002, Williams received a lease obligation notice letter from WCG relating to the asset program that was entered into while WCG was still a subsidiary. Under the program, Williams was obligated to pay $754 million related to WCG’s purchase of certain telecom facilities. Finally, in April 2002, WCG filed for Chapter 11. Through a negotiated settlement, Williams sold its claims against WCG, including the $754 million claim, the $1.4 billion claim associated with the WCG structured notes and a $106 million administrative services claim to Leucadia National Corporation Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.

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(Leucadia) for $180 million in cash and received releases from WCG. As part of the settlement, Williams also sold the Technology Center to WCG for $174.4 million. After the sale, Williams no longer owned any interest in WCG or its post bankruptcy successor, WilTel Communications Group, Inc., and all prior WCG obligations had been extinguished as a result of the chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Selling off assets In response to financial pressures due to both a softening market and the losses racked up by WCG’s bankruptcy, Williams began streamlining its operations. In May 2002, the company said it would sell assets in an effort to shore up its credit rating. In January 2002 alone, the company sold $1.1 billion worth of new publicly traded units. By the end of the first quarter of 2002, the company had paid $2.14 billion in obligations related to its former telecommunications subsidiary and had prepared itself to deal with the subsidiary’s bankruptcy, which occurred in April. Despite this series of events, Williams had completed a $3.5 billion liquidity program that allowed it to remain solvent. In June, Williams announced the layoffs of about 16 percent of its U.S. energy trading positions. A couple of months later, in August, the company announced the sale of the MAPL/Seminole Pipeline for $1.2 billion. The selling spree continued into 2003, when in May the company sold Texas Gas Pipeline for $1 billion, and in June, sold Williams Energy Partners for another $1 billion. In November 2003, Williams signed definitive agreements to sell its Alaska business interests for a total of $265 million in cash and announced plans to eliminate two cash-collateralized letters of credit that the company has with the state of Alaska. This move released $90.9 million back to Williams. By the end of 2003, Williams had sold or agreed to sell more than $3.4 billion worth of assets.

Smaller, but stronger Williams survived its storms to reinvent itself as an integrated energy company that specializes in natural gas. A stock that once traded for as little as 78 cents during intra-day trading had climbed back to around $13 as of this writing. Some have even labeled the company’s efforts as one of the best turnaround stories in the energy sector. The company completed more than $9 billion in total asset sales and reshaped its future business around natural gas pipelines, natural gas production, providing services to deepwater energy producers in the Gulf of Mexico, and marketing electricity. 192

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The company used the proceeds from its asset sales to drive down its debt. Williams’ long-term debt now stands at roughly $8 billion, down from $14.5 billion in mid2002. Reducing debt has also lowered the company’s interest expense, helping Williams produce positive cash flow again. Williams expects to generate $1.25 billion to $1.45 billion in cash flow from operations for 2004.

GETTING HIRED

Hiring overview Williams has a comprehensive career page on its web site, www.williams.com, where interested parties can search for open positions at the company by location, job title, business unit and keyword. Applicants can also submit their resumes for consideration through the web site. Applicants can also submit their resumes to a general company database by e-mailing [email protected]. The company offers an array of benefits for its full-time employees, including cash and stock bonus incentive programs, 100 percent tuition reimbursement for supervisor-approved, college-level courses, a 6 percent company-matched 401(k) investment plan, a cash-balance-style pension plan with vesting after five years of employment, and medical and dental benefits.


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VAULT CAREER GUIDES GET THE INSIDE SCOOP ON TOP JOBS “Cliffs Notes for Careers” – FORBES MAGAZINE

Vault guides and employer profiles have been published since 1997 and are the premier source of insider information on careers.

“To get the unvarnished scoop, check out Vault” – SMARTMONEY MAGAZINE

Each year, Vault surveys and interviews thousands of employees to give readers the inside scoop on industries and specific employers to help them get the jobs they want.

ENER OIL/G EMPL APPENDIX


3M | A.T. Kearney | ABN Amro | AOL Time Warner | AT&T | AXA | Abbott Laboratorie Accenture | Adobe Systems | Advanced Micro Devices | Agilent Technologies | Alco nc. | Allen & Overy | Allstate | Altria Group | American Airlines | American Electri Power | American Express | American International Group | American Managemen Systems | Apple Computer | Applied Materials | Apria Healthcare Group | AstraZeneca Automatic Data Processing | BDO Seidman | BP | Bain & Company | Bank One | Bank o America | Bank of New York | Baxter | Bayer | BMW | Bear Stearns | BearingPoint BellSouth | Berkshire Hathaway | Bertelsmann | Best Buy | Bloomberg | Boeing | Boo Allen | Borders | Boston Consulting Group | Bristol-Myers Squibb | Broadview nternational| Brown Brothers Harriman | Buck Consultants| CDI Corp.| CIBC Worl Markets | CIGNA | CSX Corp| CVS Corporation | Campbell Soup Company| Cap Gemin Ernst & Young| Capital One | Cargill| | Charles Schwab | ChevronTexaco Corp. | Chiquit Brands International | Chubb Group | Cisco Systems | Citigroup | Clear Channel | Cliffor Chance LLP | Clorox Company | Coca-Cola Company | Colgate-Palmolive | Comcast Comerica | Commerce BanCorp | Computer Associates | Computer Science Corporation | ConAgra | Conde Nast | Conseco | Continental Airlines | Corning Corporate Executive Board | Covington & Burling | Cox Communications | Credit Suiss First Boston | D.E. Shaw | Davis Polk & Wardwell | Dean & Company | Dell Computer Deloitte & Touche | Deloitte Consulting | Delphi Corporation | Deutsche Bank | Dewe Ballantine | DiamondCluster International | Digitas | Dimension Data | Dow Chemical Dow Jones | Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein | Duracell | Dynegy Inc. | EarthLink Eastman Kodak | Eddie Bauer | Edgar, Dunn & Company | El Paso Corporation Electronic Data Systems | Eli Lilly | Entergy Corporation | Enterprise Rent-A-Car | Erns & Young | Exxon Mobil | FCB Worldwide | Fannie Mae | FedEx Corporation | Federa Reserve Bank of New York | Fidelity Investments | First Data Corporation | FleetBosto Financial | Ford Foundation | Ford Motor Company | GE Capital | Gabelli Asse Management | Gallup Organization | Gannett Company | Gap Inc | Gartner | Gateway Genentech | General Electric Company | General Mills | General Motors | Genzyme Georgia-Pacific | GlaxoSmithKline | Goldman Sachs | Goodyear Tire & Rubber | Gran Thornton LLP | Guardian Life Insurance | HCA | HSBC | Hale and Dorr | Halliburton Hallmark | Hart InterCivic | Hartford Financial Services Group | Haverstick Consulting Hearst Corporation | Hertz Corporation | Hewitt Associates | Hewlett-Packard | Hom Depot | Honeywell | Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin | Household International | IBM KON Office Solutions | ITT Industries | Ingram Industries | Integral | Intel | Internationa Paper Company | Interpublic Group of Companies | Intuit | Irwin Financial | J. Walte Thompson | J.C. Penney | J.P. Morgan Chase | Janney Montgomery Scott | Janu Capital | John Hancock Financial | Johnson & Johnson | Johnson Controls | KLA-Tenco Corporation | Kaiser Foundation Health Plan | Keane | Kellogg Company | Ketchum Kimberly-Clark Corporation | King & Spalding | Kinko’s | Kraft Foods | Kroger | Kur Salmon Associates | L.E.K. Consulting | Latham & Watkins | Lazard | Lehman Brothers Lockheed Martin | Logica | Lowe’s Companies | Lucent Technologies | MBI | MBNA Manpower | Marakon Associates | Marathon Oil | Marriott | Mars & Company | McCann Erickson | McDermott, Will & Emery | McGraw-Hill | McKesson | McKinsey & Compan Merck & Co. | Merrill Lynch | Metropolitan Life | Micron Technology | Microsoft | Mille Brewing | Monitor Group | Monsanto | Morgan Stanley | Motorola | NBC | Nestle | Newe Rubbermaid | Nortel Networks | Northrop Grumman | Northwestern Mutual Financia Network | Novell | O’Melveny & Myers | Ogilvy & Mather | Oracle | Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe | PA Consulting | PNC Financial Services | PPG Industries | PRTM | PacifiCar Health Systems | PeopleSoft | PepsiCo | Pfizer | Pillsbury Winthrop | Pitne Go| Pharmacia to www.vault.com Bowes | Preston Gates & Ellis | PricewaterhouseCoopers | Principal Financial Group Procter & Gamble Company | Proskauer Rose | Prudential Financial | Prudentia Securities | Putnam Investments | Qwest Communications | R.R. Donnelley & Sons




About the Author Tyya N. Turner is an editor at Vault. She worked at several publishing companies, including Pocket Books, McGraw-Hill and CMP, prior to joining Vault. She is a graduate of Howard University and lives in New York.

Visit the Vault Law Channel at www.vault.com/law – featuring firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Law Job Board, and more.

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