Case in point: Oil majors like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP 's BPAmerica and Shell Oil USA, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell.
It plans to retire debt, repurchase shares and explore for oil and gas, especially in the U.S. ConocoPhillips brought in new execs in October to bolster plans for a successor to Chief Executive James Mulva, 64.
One of the reasons Russia and Venezuela have turned to China is that other forms of capital are no longer available to them, not only because of the financial crisis, but because of their own recent expropriations of previous investments by Exxon, ConocoPhillips, and Statoil (in Venezuela's case) and BP and Shell (in Russia's).
Even if the U.S. lifts sanctions prohibiting giants like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips from returning to Iran, "no one will invest, " Fesharaki says.
Even if the U.S. lifts sanctions prohibiting giants like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips (nyse: COP - news - people ) from returning to Iran, "no one will invest, " Fesharaki says.
ConocoPhillips is the third largest oil company in the U.S. It operates in all sectors of the oil and natural gas industry such as exploration and production, midstream, refining and marketing, and petrochemicals.
ConocoPhillips already has large shale gas operations in the U.S. However, low gas prices in the U.S. due to a supply glut have forced Conoco to announce cuts in its plans to develop shale assets in the U.S. We think that it is now more keen to focus on international markets, particularly in Asia, where demand is robust and gas prices are higher.
FORBES: Will ConocoPhillips Help China Tap Its Shale Gas Reserves?
The only problem: foreign companies that compete against U.S. companies, such as state-owned oil giants, aren't subject to the SEC's regulatory arm if they don't do business in the U.S. That could put American oil companies like ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron at a competitive disadvantage to their foreign counterparts, oil advocates say.
ConocoPhillips markets its products through approximately 8, 300 outlets in the U.S. In addition to this, it has about 7, 150 outlets to carry out its wholesale operations.
Founded in 1989, Chesapeake Energy has grown to become the second largest producer of natural gas and one of the most active drillers of new wells in the U.S. Chesapeake competes with other oil and gas producers like Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Anadarko, BP and Chevron.
FORBES: Chesapeake CNOOC Deal Is Fracking Great But Stock Still Too Gassy
The most significant trend in the U.S. natural gas production is the rapid rise in production from shale formations by companies such as ConocoPhillips, Exxon and Chevron.
FORBES: ConocoPhillips Has Big Fracking Plans For Poland, Stock Has Upside
In the process, Apache will leapfrog Occidental Petroleum ( see recent Forbes story on Oxy) to become the fourth-biggest U.S. oil company (by production, but not market cap) after ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.
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