CORPORATE RESEARCH PAPER Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

CORPORATE - Research Paper Example As of the financial year 2011, Chevron generated a sales value worth $244 billion and the net income attributable to the company during the same period was $27 billion. The profitability of the company can be gauged from the fact that the net income per share of the company during 2011 was $13.44, while the company also paid cash dividends worth $3.09 per share. The return on capital and the return on equity of Chevron during as of 2011 were 21.6% and 23.8% respectively (Chevron, 2012). Though the company is instituted in California, in the United States, Chevron has business activities throughout the world in over 120 countries. The following figure represents the geographic reach of Chevron across the world, by means of onshore operations, offshore operations, pipelines or refineries. Figure 1: Global Reach of Chevron Corporation (Juhasz, 2009) In 2011, the average net production of Chevron was 2.673 million oil barrels for every day, of which around 75% of the volume was produced from countries other than the United States (Chevron, 2012). This can be lucidly illustrated from the following figure: Figure 2: Geographic Segmentation of Chevron’s Production (Chevron, 2011) Chevron is present in various countries, such as the USA, the UK, Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Nigeria, Singapore and Australia to name a few. Chevron Corporation has a number of subsidiaries and associates for managing and operating its worldwide operations. Some of them are Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (CUSA), Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, Chevron Transport Corporation Ltd. (CTC), and Tengizchevroil LLP (TCO) among others. Even though every subsidiary of Chevron is accountable for its individual affairs, Chevron Corporation handles its investments in its subsidiaries in addition to their affiliates. The operations and business activities of Chevron are categorised into two business divisions, namely, Upstream and Downstream. The upstream business segment comprise s of sale of crude oil and natural gas produced by the company itself, in addition to the sale of natural gas produced by other companies. On the other hand, the downstream segment comprises of activities related to the processing and marketing of various forms of petroleum products. The United States of America is the principal country of operation of Chevron Corporation. Hence, in its annual reports, the company presents its geographic breakdown of performance in terms of two categories, i.e., the United States, Chevron’s domicile nation while other countries where the company operates reported as ‘International’ (outside the United States). The following table represents the breakdown of sales, assets and income of Chevron Corporation for the year 2011, in terms of the above discussed segments: Year 2011 Sales Assets Earnings Upstream United States 27,738 37,108 6,512 International 55,098 98,540 18,274 Downstream United States 91,078 22,182 1,506 International 123,221 20,517 2,085 All others United States 1,598 8,824 - International 46 17,661 - Total United States 120,414 68,114 8018 International 178,365 136,718 20,359 (All values in millions of US dollars) (Chevron Corporation, 2011) In this context, it is should be noted that excluding the United States,