Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Hess Corporation
Hess Corporation (formerly Amerada Hess Corporation) is an American global independent energy company involved in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. It was formed by the merger of Hess Oil and Chemical and Amerada Petroleum in 1968. Leon Hess was CEO from the early 1960s through 1995, after which his son John B Hess succeeded him as chairman and CEO. The company agreed to be acquired by rival oil company Chevron in October 2023, and the acquisition closed in July 2025.
Headquartered in New York City, the company ranked 394th in the 2016 annual ranking of Fortune 500 corporations. In 2020, the Forbes Global 2000 ranked Hess as the 1,253rd largest public company in the world.
The company had exploration and production operations on-shore in the United States (North Dakota) and Libya; and off-shore in the United States (Gulf of Mexico), Canada, South America (Guyana and Suriname) and Southeast Asia (Malaysia and the Joint Development Area of Malaysia and Thailand).
In 1919, British oil entrepreneur Lord Cowdray formed the Amerada Corporation to explore oil production in North America. The firm was incorporated on February 7, 1920, in Delaware as a holding company for its principal subsidiary, the Amerada Petroleum Corporation. The oil producer experienced growth during most of the 1920s, hitting a peak in 1926 with a net income of US$4.9 million. However, in the years leading to the Great Depression, weakness in the oil markets contributed to sluggish profits. The aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 aggravated an already unsteady oil industry. In the first quarter of 1930, the company experienced a minor loss. The early years of the Depression were a struggle against wavering demand and overproduction in some regions. Later into the 1930s, financial forecasts for Amerada became more positive.[citation needed]
In December 1941, the company reorganized by merging the holding company and the principal operating subsidiary, Amerada Petroleum Corporation, into a simplified operating company. The new entity also adopted the former subsidiary's name.
During the 1950s, the company expanded into pipelining and refining. In 1951, it discovered oil in the Bakken formation near Tioga, North Dakota. In 1955, robust post-war growth grew the company to over US$100 million in annual sales. In 1964, Amerada, Shell plc, Marathon, and Continental formed the Oasis Group, a consortium to explore in Libya.
Hess Oil and Chemical was founded in 1933 by Leon Hess as an operation out of Asbury Park, New Jersey that sold refining leftovers to hotels as heating fuel. In 1938, he purchased land in Perth Amboy for his first oil storage terminal and in 1958 opened the company's first refinery, located in Port Reading. The company went public in 1962 after merging with the Cletrac Corporation, a company that made farm equipment.
In October 1966, the company opened an oil refinery on Saint Croix of the US Virgin Islands under Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corporation.
Hub AI
Hess Corporation AI simulator
(@Hess Corporation_simulator)
Hess Corporation
Hess Corporation (formerly Amerada Hess Corporation) is an American global independent energy company involved in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. It was formed by the merger of Hess Oil and Chemical and Amerada Petroleum in 1968. Leon Hess was CEO from the early 1960s through 1995, after which his son John B Hess succeeded him as chairman and CEO. The company agreed to be acquired by rival oil company Chevron in October 2023, and the acquisition closed in July 2025.
Headquartered in New York City, the company ranked 394th in the 2016 annual ranking of Fortune 500 corporations. In 2020, the Forbes Global 2000 ranked Hess as the 1,253rd largest public company in the world.
The company had exploration and production operations on-shore in the United States (North Dakota) and Libya; and off-shore in the United States (Gulf of Mexico), Canada, South America (Guyana and Suriname) and Southeast Asia (Malaysia and the Joint Development Area of Malaysia and Thailand).
In 1919, British oil entrepreneur Lord Cowdray formed the Amerada Corporation to explore oil production in North America. The firm was incorporated on February 7, 1920, in Delaware as a holding company for its principal subsidiary, the Amerada Petroleum Corporation. The oil producer experienced growth during most of the 1920s, hitting a peak in 1926 with a net income of US$4.9 million. However, in the years leading to the Great Depression, weakness in the oil markets contributed to sluggish profits. The aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 aggravated an already unsteady oil industry. In the first quarter of 1930, the company experienced a minor loss. The early years of the Depression were a struggle against wavering demand and overproduction in some regions. Later into the 1930s, financial forecasts for Amerada became more positive.[citation needed]
In December 1941, the company reorganized by merging the holding company and the principal operating subsidiary, Amerada Petroleum Corporation, into a simplified operating company. The new entity also adopted the former subsidiary's name.
During the 1950s, the company expanded into pipelining and refining. In 1951, it discovered oil in the Bakken formation near Tioga, North Dakota. In 1955, robust post-war growth grew the company to over US$100 million in annual sales. In 1964, Amerada, Shell plc, Marathon, and Continental formed the Oasis Group, a consortium to explore in Libya.
Hess Oil and Chemical was founded in 1933 by Leon Hess as an operation out of Asbury Park, New Jersey that sold refining leftovers to hotels as heating fuel. In 1938, he purchased land in Perth Amboy for his first oil storage terminal and in 1958 opened the company's first refinery, located in Port Reading. The company went public in 1962 after merging with the Cletrac Corporation, a company that made farm equipment.
In October 1966, the company opened an oil refinery on Saint Croix of the US Virgin Islands under Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corporation.