Take a look at a list of the top gas marketers in North America and you won't find many names associated with the upstream end of the business. Most of the high-volume trading companies are the market-maker types who don't have production assets to back up their futures and swap contracts.
One heavy hitter in the exploration and production sector, though, is trying to make a play for the upper echelon currently dominated by financial service-oriented marketers. Conoco-the integrated oil and gas company, linked at different times during the previous hundred years to the Rockefeller and DuPont family fortunes-is enacting a strategy to join the barons of the 21st century energy-marketing world.
With its U.S. gas production totaling almost 300 Bcf in 2000, Conoco believes it has a strong foundation to make a rapid ascent into the mega-marketer echelon. The scope of its production assets promises to grow even larger following the completion of its mergers with Gulf Canada Resources and Phillips Petroleum.