THE PURPOSE OF WHO'S WHO...
WHO'S WHO was designed with the Oil and Gas professional in mind. Those persons, and other persons, who frequently work with oil and gas titles, know how completely frustrating it is to find themselves with a dead end in their oil and gas title regarding the name of certain oil companies who seemingly disappear from title (leaving no clue as to what happened to them).
WHO'S WHO is designed to provide those clues regarding oil and gas companies who may have disappeared from one of your titles. In other words, the specific purpose of WHO'S WHO is to be a helpful guide to find companies who are known under another name than may be of record in a court house.
WHO'S WHO includes mergers, takeovers, name changes and closures.
HOW TO USE WHO'S WHO
In examining WHO'S WHO, you will find that the company names are set forth in two (2) columns. The left column is the alphabetical index. Every search must be made using the left column. The right column contains the name which the company becomes after it is no longer known as the name in the left column. In the event that no more current name for a company in the left column is known of by McPherson Publishing Company, then the right column will contain the word "same."
Let's run through a couple of examples of hypothetical fact situations in which WHO'S WHO is handy and how to use WHO'S WHO. Let's say that you would like to acquire a farmout from a company who appears to own a working interest in a tract of land you are working with. The company's name in the court house records is Atlantic Petroleum Storage Co. You are aware of and know of no company by that name. There are no clues in the records. You refer to WHO'S WHO.
In WHO'S WHO you find that the companies are set forth in two columns. First, go to the left column and find Atlantic Petroleum Storage Co. in the "A" category. Next, look to the right column directly adjacent to the name of Atlantic Petroleum Storage Co. to find that it became Atlantic Refining Co.
Then, re-enter the left column and with the name of Atlantic Refining Co. and look to the right column to see that it became Atlantic
Richfield Company. Then, re-enter the left column with the name Atlantic Richfield Company and you will find "same" listed in the right
column indicating that you have completed your search.
Your search went like this (numbered sequentially):
left column right column
(1) Atlantic Petroleum Storage Co. Atlantic Refining Co.
(2) Atlantic Refining Co. Atlantic Richfield Co.
(3) Atlantic Richfield Co. Same (end)
One of the beauties of WHO'S WHO is that you can enter your search at any point during a series of name changes involving a given company. In other words, referring again to our above example, if the chain of names you are working with in the courthouse was documented up to Atlantic Refining Co., rather than Atlantic Petroleum Storage Co., you can enter WHO'S WHO at that point during the company's evolution of name changes rather than having to run through a complete series of names beginning at the original name (keeping in mind that the original name of a company may not be very similar to the final name).
In another example, let's assume you are an oil and gas title examiner, whose client is a Landman at an oil company. Your client has provided you a set of abstracts to examine and has told you that he intends to cause a well to be drilled on the subject property. You are to render a drilling opinion for his purposes. Since you are working directly for the oil company, you want to provide the Landman every clue you can as to possible links in his chain of title (even if it is in the form of a requirement). The abstract you are working with contains a producing interest held in the name of General American Oil Company and the last activity of record involving General American is many years ago.
You refer to WHO'S WHO because you are curious about the whereabouts of this company. You first look to the left column to find General American Oil Company. Then, looking to the right column adjacent to General American Oil Company, you see that General American Oil Company changed names to Phillips Petroleum Company. You re- enter the left column and find Phillips Petroleum Company and again look to the right column adjacent to Phillips Petroleum Company and find the word "same."
This time, your search went like this (numbered sequentially):
left column right column
(1) General American Oil Company Phillips Petroleum Company
(2) Phillips Petroleum Company Same (end)
This simple maneuver allows you to provide possible clues to your client who will be wanting to acquire a farmout from General American Oil Company. You suggest that he/she try contacting Phillips Petroleum Company for information. You saved your client tremendous leg work. You're a star. Note that in some cases you will find the terms "Subsid:" "Aff:" and “JV” followed by a company name. These are abbreviations for Subsidiary, Affiliate of, and Joint Venture respectively. Also, you may notice the word PENDING in some cases. This means that the transaction was pending at the time Who’s Who went to press.
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