The story here is of a gradual decline in the size and importance of most of these (once) large independents. Their combined reserves and production is not sizeable compared to the super majors and majors but their history may be indicative of what is coming the way of the larger companies. All but one of these companies is American owned. Most have or had holdings in shale or oil sands but many have sold off most of these and chosen to concentrate on a shrinking core business. There is probably a fuller picture to see if their financial performances, such as debt loads or share buy back schemes, were also considered but that’s a bigger job than I’m prepared for or capable of. For the reserves charts the right hand axis shows liquid (green) and gas (red) replacement ratio with the organic ratios […]