User:Char/sandbox
State-owned enterprise | |
Industry | Oil and gas |
Founded | July 6, 1968 |
Founder | Baseel Madoun |
Headquarters | Agnannet, Charnea |
Key people | Ahmoud Maleman (CEO) |
Products | Fuel and petrochemicals |
Revenue | CDR 271.314 billion (2019) |
CDR 21.192 billion (2019) | |
CDR 199.691 billion (2019) | |
Total assets | CDR 999.210 billion (2019) |
Total equity | CDR 1015.180 billion (2019) |
Owner | Charnea |
Number of employees | 127,110 (2018) |
The Charnean Oil and Petrochemical Corporation, better known as COPEC, is the state owned petroleum company belonging to the Charnean Confederation. With an annual revenue of over 271 billion Dinars, COPEC is the most profitable enterprise in Charnea and a major source of income for the Confederate government, which has limited access to taxation revenue due to its internal political structure and the demographics of the Charnean population. This status affects government policy regarding COPEC significantly, as lawmakers and national leaders in Agnannet routinely prioritize COPEC infrastructure and revenue over other economic concearns. COPEC was founded in 1968 through the expropriation and nationalization of assets belonging to many foreign and domestic petroleum firms operating in Charnea at that time, and has played a significant role in the internal politics of the Charnean Confederation since its foundation as an institution of great economic and political importance in the country.
History
The modern exploitation of oil in Charnea began in the early 20th century, when products such as kerosene began to be refined from petroleum around the area of Talawit in western Charnea in 1901. These initially small scale activities by domestic comanies attracted the attention of foreign interests in relatively short order however, and by the 1920s firms based in Latium, Sante Reze, Yisrael and Belfras had either invested in the Charnean oil fields or directly opened up field operations there. This was facilitated by the contenporary Charnean government, which had already entered into the practice of exchanging local mineral rights to foreign companies in exchange for private investment in public infrastructure such as roads and the electrification of the local areas, which were typically isolated rural zones near or within the Zahra desert.
Nationalization of Charnean oil resources was first proposed in 1961 by a section of the New Dawn Plan, a proposed economic development plan comissioned by Amenukal Mzagar. Elements of the New Dawn Plan would be coopted and implimented by Executor Baseel Madoun as one of his first actions after taking office in the year 1968, one year following Amenukal Mzagar's death and succesion by Zaragan Zina as Amenukal. This included the foundation of COPEC and the establishment of a modified version of the proposed adademic development in Mount Jekara, which would later become Mount Jekara Research Center, at this time established to take over research and development as well as education and training for petroleum industry specialists once covered by overseas institutions.
Besides a number of industrial disasters and major controversies sparked by COPEC activities in the period of 1968-81, the company faced numbers charges and accusations of embezzlement by its officers and subdivisions. Many of these accusations explictly linked the regime of Baseel Madoun to accusations of corruption and embezzlement by the state owned COPEC , although no such allegations were ever confirmed or resulted in any convictions. The company would later suffer significant losses both financial and material as a result of the East Scipian Wars, where government reinvestement into COPEC would drop off as corporate revenue was siphoned off to fund the Charnean war effort, and damage to infrastructure resulting from the war was left neglected for decades. This would lead to a decades long slump in revenue for COPEC that would not amellorate until after the Triple Coup of 2000 and a reformation of COPEC's corporate structure.
COPEC's revival and modern success would occur as a result of the Zombie Plan, a restoration of many aspects of the New Dawn Plan of 1961 including several clauses copied over verbatim regarding the function of COPEC in Charnean development, as well as the diversification of the Mount Jekara scientific faci8lities from purely petro-industrial research to general industrial development projects and broad academic research, eventually severing the de facto subordination of the MJRC under COPEC.