Sonat

Last updated

Sonat, Inc.
TypeCorporation
Industry Energy
Founded1928 as Southern Natural Gas Company
FateMerged
Successor El Paso Corporation
Headquarters AmSouth-Sonat Tower
Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Key people
Ronald L. Kuehn, Jr., Chief Executive Officer and President
ProductsNatural Gas Transmission and Exploration
RevenueIncrease2.svg$4.17 billion (1998)
Number of employees
2,107 (1998)

Sonat, Inc., headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, was a large Fortune 500 American energy holding company. The company was founded in 1928 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "SNT". Sonat was primarily involved in transmission and marketing natural gas and oil and gas exploration and production. The company was also involved in contract offshore drilling until 1995 when the offshore business became Transocean. [1] In 1999 Sonat merged with El Paso Corporation. The company was headquartered in the AmSouth-Sonat Tower in downtown Birmingham.

Contents

History

Southern Natural Gas Corporation, 1928-1970s

Sonat was founded in Birmingham, Alabama, as Southern Natural Gas Corporation in 1928. In 1953, the company spun off its natural gas utility division, forming Birmingham-based Alabama Gas Corporation. During the 1960s, the company changed its name to Southern Natural Resources, Inc. In 1968, the company expanded into forestry by creating Southern Forest Products, Inc.

Southern Natural Industries, Inc., 1970s-1980s

In 1972, the company moved into its new 30-story corporate headquarters in downtown Birmingham. The building, called the First National-Southern Natural Building and later the AmSouth-Sonat Tower, was equally owned by and occupied with First National Bank of Birmingham. In 1973, the company changed its name again to Southern Natural Industries, Inc. The company, which was quickly expanding, acquired The Offshore Company in 1978 and soon changed the name to Sonat Offshore (Transocean).

Sonat Inc., 1980s-1999

By the 1980s, Southern Natural had diversified into many different industries. In 1982, the company decided to change its name to Sonat Inc., to create a better known identity in the energy industry. During this time, the company, which had 1981 revenues of $2.4 billion, was ranked as one of the largest companies in the U.S. The company was also ranked as the largest pipeline producer by Forbes . On March 27, 1986, the company expanded its pipeline division by acquiring 50% of Citrus Corporation, which owned Florida Gas Transmission, for $360 million in cash. [2] Later the next year Sonat Marketing was formed to market and sell natural gas. By the end of the 1980s, the company was a leader in natural gas pipeline distribution, exploration and production, and offshore drilling.

In 1993, the company's Sonat Offshore division was spun off as Sonat Offshore Drilling, Inc. In June 1995, the company sold its remaining stake in Sonat Offshore division to stockholders. [3] On November 23, 1997, Sonat expanded its Exploration and Production division by acquiring Zilkha Energy for $1.3 billion. [4]

Merger with El Paso

In March 1999, Sonat announced it was merging with El Paso Corporation in a $6 billion deal in an effort for El Paso to maintain competition in the natural gas markets. [5] At the time of the merger, Sonat was a Fortune 500 company. The E&P unit, Sonat Exploration Company, was blended into El Paso's organization, and the gas transmission unit, Southern Natural Gas Company, is still headquartered in the Birmingham area.

Sonat divisions

Sonat Inc.'s corporate headquarters and several of its divisions were located in Birmingham, Alabama, in the AmSouth-Sonat Tower. Sonat also had offices in Houston, Oklahoma City, Washington D.C., New York City, and London. By 1999, the company's divisions consisted of natural gas distribution, natural gas marketing, and exploration and production.

Southern Natural Gas Company

Southern Natural Gas Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, was Sonat's natural gas transmission division. The division owned the Sea Robin Pipeline and 50% of Florida Gas Transmission. Sonat sold the Sea Robin Pipeline in 1999 as a requirement to complete its merger with El Paso. After being acquired by El Paso in 1999, Southern Natural continued to operate as a separate division and kept its corporate headquarters in the AmSouth-Sonat Tower until 2007, when it relocated to the Colonial Brookwood Center located in a suburb of Birmingham. [6]

Publicly owned El Paso Pipeline Partners, which is majority owned by El Paso Corp., owns 60% of the company, with El Paso Corp. owning the remaining 40%.

Sonat Marketing

Sonat Marketing was headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, and was primarily engaged in the marketing of natural gas. The company also operated Sonat Power Marketing which marketed and sold electrical power.

Sonat Exploration

Sonat Exploration Company, headquartered in Houston, Texas, was the exploration and production division of Sonat. The company had regional offices in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Shreveport, Louisiana, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Houston and Tyler, Texas. As a result of the merger with El Paso, the regional offices were closed and the holdings were blended into El Paso's Exploration and Production division. [7]

Former divisions

Sonat Offshore/Transocean

Sonat Offshore was formed in 1953 by Southern Natural Gas when it established The Offshore Company to own mobile jackup rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The company's name was changed to Sonat Offshore Drilling in 1982. In 1993, Sonat took Sonat Offshore public. Sonat fully divested itself of Sonat Offshore in 1995. In 1996, Sonat Offshore acquired Norwegian Transocean ASA and decided to adopted the name Transocean Offshore in order to differentiate itself from its former parent company. Today Transocean is one of the largest offshore drilling contractors in the world.

Sonat Marine

Sonat Marine was formed in 1981 when Sonat purchased Interstate Oil Transportation Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for $109 million. [8] Interstate had been the nation's largest independent marine transporter of petroleum products. In 1987, a group of Sonat Marine executives and managers formed a partnership to acquire the company from Sonat for $234 million. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transocean</span> Offshore drilling contractor

Transocean Ltd. is an American company. It is the world's largest offshore drilling contractor based on revenue and is based in Vernier, Switzerland. The company has offices in 20 countries, including Canada, the United States, Norway, United Kingdom, India, Brazil, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corrib gas project</span> Irish offshore natural gas field

The Corrib gas project is a developed natural gas deposit located in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 83 kilometres (52 mi) off the northwest coast of County Mayo, Ireland. The project includes a natural gas pipeline and an onshore gas processing plant, which commenced gas production in 2015. During its development, the project attracted considerable opposition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Paso Corp.</span>

El Paso Corporation was a provider of natural gas and related energy products and was one of North America's largest natural gas producers until its acquisition by Kinder Morgan in 2012. It was headquartered in Houston, Texas. United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eni</span> Italian multinational energy company

Eni S.p.A. is an Italian multinational energy company headquartered in Rome. Considered one of the seven "supermajor" oil companies in the world, it has operations in 69 countries with a market capitalization of US$54.08 billion, as of 11 April 2022. The Italian government owns a 30.33% golden share in the company, 4.37% held through the Ministry of Economy and Finance and 25.96% through the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.

Sea Robin Pipeline is a submarine natural gas pipeline system which brings natural gas from the offshore oil wells in the Ship Shoal area of the central Gulf of Mexico onto the central Louisiana coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kinder Morgan</span> Energy Transportation Company

Kinder Morgan, Inc. is one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America. The company specializes in owning and controlling oil and gas pipelines and terminals.

Energen Corporation was a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration. In 2018, the company was acquired by Diamondback Energy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oneok</span> Oklahoma based energy company

Oneok, Inc. is an American diversified corporation focused primarily on the natural gas industry, and headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The company is part of the Fortune 500 and S&P 500. Oneok was founded in 1906 as Oklahoma Natural Gas Company, but it changed its corporate name to Oneok in December 1980. It also owns major natural gas liquids (NGL) systems due to the 2005 acquisition of Koch Industries natural gas businesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regions Center (Birmingham)</span> Office tower located at the northwest corner of 20th Street and 5th Avenue in Birmingham

The Regions Center is a 390 foot tall, 30 story office tower located at the northwest corner of 20th Street and 5th Avenue North in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.

Southern Natural Gas Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a natural gas pipeline company that was founded in 1928 and is currently a division of Kinder Morgan. The company was a division of Birmingham-based Sonat Inc. until 1999 when Sonat and El Paso Corporation merged. El Paso was acquired by Kinder Morgan in 2012.

Saga Petroleum Company ("Saga") is a Denver, Colorado-headquartered limited liability company owned by Brent Morse and Charles Farmer. Saga Petroleum operates and drills oil and gas wells primarily in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Texas, West Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, Montana and Alabama. Saga's natural gas and oil production revenues exceed the hundred million dollar mark annually. Saga was also listed as the 49th largest private company in Colorado in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TPAO</span>

Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklığı (TPAO) was founded in 1954 by Law No. 6327 with the responsibility of being involved in hydrocarbon exploration, drilling, production, refinery and marketing activities of oil and gas in Turkey as the national company.

Noble Energy, Inc. was a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration headquartered in Houston, Texas. In October 2020, the company was acquired by Chevron Corporation.

Transocean John Shaw was a semi-submersible drilling rig designed by Friede & Goldman as a self-propelled modified & enhanced pacesetter, built and delivered in 1982 by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Ltd. in Japan.

Oscar Sherman Wyatt, Jr. is an American businessman and self made millionaire. He was the founder of Coastal Corporation and a decorated bomber pilot in World War II. In 2007 the U.S. federal court in Manhattan tried him for illegally sending payments to Iraq under the Oil-for-Food Program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coastal Corporation</span> Defunct American energy corporation

Coastal Corporation was a diversified energy and petroleum products company headquartered at 9 Greenway Plaza in Greenway Plaza, Houston, Texas. The company was founded in 1955 by Oscar Wyatt and incorporated in 1955 as Coastal States Gas Producing Company. It merged with the El Paso Corporation in 2001. As of 1999, Coastal was a Fortune 500 company with 13,300 employees and annual revenues of $8.2 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crescent Petroleum</span>

Crescent Petroleum is the first and largest private upstream oil and gas company in the Middle East. Founded in 1971, Crescent Petroleum is headquartered in the Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), with current operations in both the UAE and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cairn India</span>

Cairn India was an Indian oil and gas exploration and production company, headquartered in Gurgaon, India. The company was merged with Vedanta Limited.

References

  1. ↑ "FundingUniverse (undated, ca 1991): SONAT, INC. Company History" . Retrieved August 9, 2009.
  2. ↑ Sonat Inc. to purchase a one-half interest in Florida Gas Transmission Co., an interstate gas pipeline subsidiary of HNG-InterNorth, PR Newswire, March 27, 1986
  3. ↑ Sonat to Sell Stake in Offshore Drilling Unit, New York Times, June 22, 1995
  4. ↑ Sonat Announces Acquisition of Zilkha Energy, PR Newswire, November 23, 1997
  5. ↑ "El Paso Energy to Buy Sonat, Creating Gas Pipeline Giant". The New York Times. March 16, 1999. Retrieved August 9, 2009.
  6. ↑ Sonat Moves its HQ to Colonial Brookwood, Birmingham Business Journal, March 28, 2008
  7. ↑ "Sonat Exploration to close some offices", Houston Business Journal, September 1, 1999
  8. ↑ "Sonat Marine Company Incorporated". Tugboat Information. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Sonat Sells Tug Operations to Maritrans Partnership". The Journal of Commerce. April 15, 1987. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.