The U.S and European Oil Companies have Decreased Emissions Continuously Year after Year.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Since oil prices have been on the rise, the focus has been on the oil industry more than on others. These companies' results have been at record levels.

Billions in Investments in Ethical Areas

With companies such as ExxonMobil investing billions of U.S. Dollars each year in these areas, there is a focus among investors, the media, the public and regulators on ethics-related performance. These intangible areas are key determinants of an oil company's image, whether they are granted drilling rights, whether analysts recommend their equities for purchase, whether the companies incur spillages, and whether the media treat them well, to mention just a few examples.

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c24768) has announced the addition of Ethics in the Oil Industry 2005 to their offering.

Ten Oil Companies Examined In-Depth

The study "Ethics in the Oil Industry 2005" focuses on 120 points of corporate governance, ethics, environment, corporate social responsibility and transparency of each of ten leading oil companies in the world.

Ranking is the Final Result

The final result of the study is a ranking of all factors per company. The percentages refer to the number of areas in which a company complies with generally accepted ethical guidelines in the five areas such as corporate governance and environmental policies.

Companies Mentioned:

--British Petroleum, UK

--ChevronTexaco, U.S.

--ExxonMobil, U.S.

--Lukoil, Russia

--PDVSA, Venezuela

--PEMEX, Mexico

--PETROBRAS, Brazil

--Repsol YPF, Spain

--Royal Dutch Shell, UK - The Netherlands

--Total, France

Some Findings & Conclusions:

--Petrobras is catching up with the European and U.S.companies bit by bit. Although it only achieves a total score of 53%, it complies with Bovespa level 2 corporate governance rules and invested $1.9 billion in environmental projects over the last 5 years. By comparison: ExxonMobil spent $2.8 billion in 2003 and 2004 in 2004 on environmental projects. However, these figures may not be comparable among companies.

--All companies spend substantial funds on training personnel. ExxonMobil spent $48 million to train over 31.000 employees in more than 500 programs.

Well trained employees are more motivated and less prone to make mistakes in operating equipment, which in turn reduces the risk of accidents and spills.

Given that most fatalities occur in Third World countries through road accidents, ExxonMobil, for example, runs driver education courses for truck drivers.

--In analyzing which areas oil companies did best at, "community programs" (a part of CSR) was the strongest overall area. Oil companies have traditionally given to the poor, educated the youth and supported the arts as an important promotion strategy. Total, for example, is sponsoring the Pharaoh exhibition in France and Petrobras set up "petrol station schools" at stations to train thousands of young people all over Brazil. Sponsoring motor sports is also a well-known part of this area, on which the companies do not publish budget figures.

--Codes of ethics and conduct are becoming detailed, outlining exactly how company employees should behave with respect to bribery, buying and selling equities and hundreds of ocoron Texaco publishes its code of business conduct in 11 languages.

--The U.S. and European companies have decreased emissions continuously year after year. Most certify the majority of their plants according to ISO and fatalities among employees and contractors are between 10 and 15 annually. Petrobras is at 19, by comparison, down from over 20.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c24768.