Business Analysis III - Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
Leonard VanBerkel
MGT/521
October 15, 2012
Kirk Davis

Business Analysis III - Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (Anadarko); head office in The Woodlands, Texas, employees 4,800 people and is a Fortune 500 company with recorded revenues of $13.967 billion for fiscal year ending 2011. This represented an increase of 28% over 2010. Anadarko posted record sales volume in 2011. Contrasted against Anadarko is Exxon, which had reported revenues over the same period of $452.926 billion and was ranked number one for most profitable companies, realizing profits of $41.060 billion (CNNMoney, 2012). Anadarko is ranked 192nd whereas Exxon is ranked 1st. The most glaring difference financially between the two companies is not just the large revenue gap, but the difference in profitability. Despite achieving record sales numbers and double digit growth, Anadarko recorded a net loss of $2.649 billion for fiscal year ending 2011 (CNNMoney, 2012).
There are a large number of companies in the petroleum industry that realized large profits on varying degrees of revenues in 2011, yet Anadarko showed large losses. The question that arises is why did Anadarko lose money, while so many other companies in the same industry were profitable? A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis has been performed on Anadarko to determine if it is worth investing in this company, or consider it another casualty of the industry, economy, or mismanagement, or all of the above.
The following SWOT analysis was obtained from the MarketLine reports (Business Source Complete - Publications - SWOT Analyses, 2012).
Strengths
Anadarko has sufficient reserves; however, 90% of the company’s total reserves were in the United States for fiscal year ending 2011. The remaining 10% of Anadarko’s reserves were