Analyzing the liabilities and stockholders' equity of the world's leading public oil and gas corporations
Subject. The article investigates liabilities and equity of leading public oil and gas companies from 2006 to 2018. Objectives. The focus is on determining the current values of the main components of liabilities and equity of leading public oil and gas companies, identifying the key trends over the studied period and factors that led to the changes. Methods. The paper employs methods of comparative, financial, and economic analysis, generalization of official annual reports on financial and business operations of the said corporations. Results. Based on the results of the comprehensive analysis of balance sheets of 25 oil and gas companies, I established movements in the size and structure of liabilities and equity in the public sector of the industry and the main factors that contributed to the changes. Conclusions. Over the studied period, I revealed an increase in the balance sheet valuation of liabilities and equity of most of leading public oil and gas companies, notwithstanding a noticeable decrease in their value after the industry crisis. The components of liabilities and equity remained approximately equal, but the transformation in the ratio between the components occurred within the indicators themselves. The long-term component started prevailing in the structure of liabilities. It was driven by growing total debt, which almost equaled the value of accounts payable. As a result, the total debt became the dominant component of long-term liabilities, and accounts payable retained key positions only in the short-term component.