Opinion ID: 1298687
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Amoco Corporation and its Subsidiaries

Text: Amoco Corporation is an Indiana corporation with its principal place of business in Illinois. It fully owns over 175 subsidiaries. Amoco Corporation and its subsidiaries operate a large integrated petroleum and chemical enterprise and conduct business throughout the world. Amoco Corporation defines itself as a parent corporation concerned with overall policy guidance, financing, coordination of operations, staff services, performance evaluation, and planning for its subsidiaries. Operations are conducted through three principal, wholly-owned subsidiaries: Amoco Production Company (APC), Amoco Oil Company (AOC), and Amoco Chemical Company (ACC). APC and AOC are each stand-alone corporations with their own subsidiaries and operate independently from Amoco Corporation on a daily basis. AOC is a Maryland corporation with its principal place of business in Illinois. It engages in the refining, marketing, and transportation of petroleum and related products. Specifically, AOC purchases crude oil, refines it into useful products such as gasoline, home heating fuel, and jet fuel, and then markets the refined products. The products are sold to a variety of users including AOC's own service stations, third-party service stations, or third-party fuel oil distributors. AOC's own stations sell retail and wholesale gasoline and other petroleum products. During the audit period, AOC did not operate a refinery in Minnesota, but it did market refined petroleum products here. AOC's marketing operations in Minnesota primarily consisted of storing refined products in terminals and selling those products to its own service stations and to third-party service stations and fuel oil distributors. APC explores for and finds crude oil and gas reserves around the world and brings them to the surface. After locating an oil reserve and bringing the crude oil to the surface, APC engages in the production of the crude oil, which requires treatment to separate impurities. The crude oil then passes thorough a Lease Automatic Custody Transfer Unit, also known in the industry as the wellhead. At the wellhead, the volume of oil that is moved to the market is measured and is the basis on which the producer [is] paid for the crude oil that the company produced. APC sells the crude oil at the wellhead to refiners or brokers. A competitive pricing mechanism controls the prices of crude oil, and buyers place bids on the crude oil by posting competitive field prices. During the audit period, APC did not conduct any exploration or production activities in Minnesota, nor did it have any property, payroll, or sales in Minnesota. APC is not a party in this appeal.