as nyse hes s & p 500 component industry oil and gas founded 1919 headquarters corporate headquarters 1185 avenue of the americas new york new york exploration and production 1501 mckinney street houston texas marketing and refining woodbridge new jersey products petrochemical revenue us 6.636 billion 2015 operating income us 3.842 billion 2015 net income us 3.056 billion 2015 total assets us 34.195 billion 2015 number of employees 2 770 2016 1 website www.hess.com the hess corporation formerly amerada hess is an american integrated oil company headquartered in new york city and a fortune 100 corporation . the company explores produces transports and refines crude oil and natural gas . refined petroleum products as well as natural gas and electricity are marketed to customers throughout the east coast of the united states . although towered over in size by enormous global players in the same industry hess placed 75 in the 2013 fortune 500 rankings . in 2014 hess sold its gas station network to marathon petroleum in order to focus on exploration and production reducing its headcount from 12 225 employees to 6 045 employees . 1 by 2015 many were converted to the marathon owned speedway brand . the company has exploration and production operations in the united states united kingdom norway denmark russia equatorial guinea algeria libya gabon egypt ghana the joint development area of malaysia and thailand indonesia thailand azerbaijan australia brazil and st. lucia . hess is also active in the financial markets through the hess energy trading company hetco its trading arm . contents 1 history 2 hess energy trading company 3 environmental record 4 locations 5 toy trucks 5.1 models 5.2 miniature trucks 6 references 7 external links history edit a former hess station in rensselaer county new york in 1919 british oil entrepreneur lord cowdray formed amerada corporation to explore for oil in north america . 2 the firm was incorporated feb. 7 1920 in delaware as a holding company for its principal subsidiary the amerada petroleum corporation . the oil producer experienced growth during most of the 1920s hitting a peak in 1926 with a net income of us 4.9 million . however in the years leading to the great depression weakness in the oil markets contributed to sluggish profits . the aftermath of the market crash aggravated the unsteady oil industry . in the first quarter of 1930 the company experienced a minor loss . the early years of the depression was a struggle against wavering demand and overproduction in some regions . later into the 1930s the financial forecast became more sanguine for amerada . in december 1941 the company reorganized by merging the holding company with the principal operating subsidiary amerada petroleum corporation into a simplified operating company . the new entity also adopted the former subsidiary s name . robust postwar growth rocketed the company past us 100 million in sales in 1955 . hess oil and chemical an oil refiner and marketer founded by leon hess acquired 10 % of the company for us 100 million in 1966 after the british government sold a stake it had amassed during world war ii . albert levinson became the senior vice president and designed the hess logo . hess and amerada would announce plans for a merger in december 1968 . some amerada stockholders led by morton adler criticized the arrangement as being too favorable for hess . adler argued amerada s oil reserves would contribute the lion s share of assets for the proposed company so amerada stockholders should retain more control of the new company . before the stockholder vote on the matter phillips petroleum an integrated oil firm approached amerada with its own merger proposal but the offer was declined in march . still interested phillips nonetheless stated it would not carry out a proxy fight against the proposed hess deal . hess fearing such a strategy made a cash tender offer of us 140 million for an additional 1.1 million shares of amerada which would double its holding in the company . the new shares would be employed in a may stockholder vote deciding the merger s fate . the vote took place amidst shareholder rancor that in addition to echoing adler s arguments objected to amerada s financing of the recently completed tender offer . hess planned to cancel the shares and the cost of the acquisition would be absorbed by the newly formed company . one shareholder at the meeting quipped it looks to me as if hess is buying amerada with amerada s money . proponents of the deal won and the us 2.4 billion merger combining a purely production company with a refinery and marketer operation was completed . 3 however controversy was not yet extinguished by the stockholder confirmation . a class action federal lawsuit in 1972 claiming the proxy vote information was misleading . in 1976 a court agreed that the company falsely claimed to have considered each company s assets as a reason for the merger . 4 in february 2000 hess acquired the 51 % shares of the meadville corporation it didn t already own and rebranded all 178 merit gas stations as hess . 5 the merit gas station chain were primarily in the boston new york and philadelphia markets . in 2001 amerada hess purchased triton energy limited in a cash tender deal valued at approximately us 3.2 billion . triton one of the largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in the u.s. had earned a reputation as a maverick oil company due to its highly successful yet potentially risky overseas exploration . 6 according to amerada hess press releases at the time triton s major oil and gas assets in west africa latin america and southeast asia would strengthen its exploration and production business and give it access to long life international reserves . hess also stated that the purchase was expected to immediately increase the company s per day barrel output by more than 25 percent . 7 also in 2001 amerada hess entered into a joint venture with a.t. williams oil co. of winston salem north carolina . the company and its gas stations were called wilcohess . eventually there were 1200 wilcohess stations . 8 following on the heels of the triton purchase energy prices fell and global economies weakened . amerada hess struggled through the following years posting a us 218 million loss in 2002 due primarily to a us 530 million charge relating to its write down of the ceiba oil field but then posting steadily increasing profits from 2003 through 2006 when the company posted us 1.920 billion in net income . 9 in may 2006 amerada hess corp. changed its name to hess corp. 10 on january 18 2012 the company announced that it would close the hovensa refinery in st. croix united states virgin islands by mid february 2012 . the refinery will then serve as a storage terminal hess will permanently close its port reading new jersey petroleum refinery by the end of february 2013 gas prices rose to their highest levels since october and hess said it will lay off 170 of 217 employees exit the refinery business and seek a buyer for its 19 storage terminals . it will focus on exploration and production . 11 a hess press release 12 announces the company s plans for fully exiting the company s downstream businesses including retail energy marketing and energy trading . 13 there is no link between the rise in gas prices after the announcement of the closing of the woodbridge port reading nj facility . the output of that facility was more geared to the aviation and specialty fuels markets and not automotive grade products on march 4 2013 hess announced that it would sell its domestic refineries and retail operations and that it would also sell its holdings in indonesia and thailand . the new york times also reported that hess retail and refinery operations contributed about 4 percent of the company s revenue . it also noted that hess will sell its holdings in indonesia and thailand . 14 the company will focus exclusively on oil production following a recent trend in the oil industry for companies to spin off their downstream assets and focus on their more profitable upstream business ; conocophillips and marathon oil have also made similar spinoffs in recent years with phillips 66 and marathon petroleum respectively . in april 2013 hess corp announced it would be selling its russian unit to lukoil for 2.05 billion . 15 in july 2013 hess corp said it would sell its energy marketing unit to uk firm centrica for around 1.03 billion . 16 hess corp announced in october 2013 that it was planning on selling its east coast and st.lucia storage terminal network to buckeye partners lp for 850 million . 17 hess corp announced in december 2013 that it is selling it s indonesian assets to an indonesian petroleum consortium . 18 on january 8 2014 hess filed for a tax free spin off of its gas station network . the newly formed company was to be known as hess retail and will include over 1 200 stores throughout the eastern united states . 19 before completing the spin off marathon petroleum subsidiary speedway llc announced on may 22 2014 that it would acquire the retail unit of hess corp for 2.87 billion . following the closure of the acquisition in late 2014 all hess gas stations will be rebranded as speedway gas stations by the end of 2017 . 20 21 the transaction completed the transformation of hess into an oil company focused solely on exploration and production effectively reversing the amerada merger almost 50 years prior . hess energy trading company edit hess energy trading company hetco is a full service proprietary energy trading company and market maker established in 1997 . 22 it was founded by two goldman sachs partners responsible for the energy trading business at the investment bank . 23 hetco offers its clients and partners extensive access to the global physical and financial energy markets . hetco is partly owned by and fully guaranteed by hess corporation a fortune 100 company . hetco is an advisor and risk management counterparty of some of the largest energy enterprises in the world . as a major player in all energy markets cash futures and options physical and cash settled hetco is responsible for a significant market share of the electricity natural gas weather crude oil refined products and energy equity derivatives . hess has gross exposure to oil derivatives equivalent to 1.7 bn barrels about three months us consumption from trading conducted principally through hetco filings show . 24 hetco s offices are in new york boston houston london dubai singapore and geneva . hetco s trading team has worked at major oil firms and leading financial institutions many of whom have been trading since energy markets were commoditized in the mid 1980s . citation needed hetco also offers specialist energy advisory services to public private state owned companies sovereign entities and financial institutions through its subsidiary hetco advisory services uk ltd. one of hetco s coups came in 2004 when the company signed a contract to help sonatrach the algerian oil and gas company hedge price risks and expand its customer list to the us and the asia pacific regions . 24 hess announced march 4 2013 that it planned to exit the energy trading business along with retail and energy marketing . 12 environmental record edit the new york times reported on october 28 1990 that a barge with a load of 31 000 barrels 4 900 m3 of kerosene struck a reef in the hudson river spilling 163 000 us gallons 620 m3 of fuel . immediately hess assumed responsibility for the cleanup ; the coast guard worked alongside the red star company to