COPEC
 COPEC Headquarters in Agnannet | |
| 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 |  $27.13 billion CDR 352.69 billion (2019) |
| $2.119 billion CDR 27.547 billion (2019) | |
| $19.969 billion CDR 259.59 billion (2019) | |
| Total assets | $99.921 billion CDR 1298.973 billion (2019) |
| Total equity | $101.518 billion CDR 1319.734 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 353 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 concerns. 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 companies 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 contemporary 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 commissioned by Amenukal Mzagar. Elements of the New Dawn Plan would be coopted and implemented 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 explicitly 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 reinvestment 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 ameliorate 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 published in 2004 by the government of Executor Kubra ult Lamine, 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 facilities from purely petro-industrial research to general industrial development projects and broad academic research. Although COPEC's operations and infrastructure would be restored and expanded under the Zombie Plan, its training center at Mount Jekara would take on numerous expansions and diversify into general industrial development and academic research, eventually severing the de facto subordination of the MJRC under COPEC.
Operations
Exploitation
COPEC has been criticized for failing infrastructure ever since the company's historic crash in the 1980s and onward, and continues to be routinely scrutinized for lacking physical infrastructure, technology and financial resources even in spite of numerous increases in the company's budget and investment by the Charnean regime in Agnannet. Some sources have blamed COPEC's perceived failures on a lack of foreign investment and technical assistance in its exploitation and petroleum processing technologies, which the government of Kubra ult Lamine has repeatedly turned away on the basis of the self reliant ideology of the current regime. Additionally, only a small portion of Charnea's vast territorial expanse has been explored for new reserves. This lack of new exploration has been exacerbated by government policy protecting tribal land rights in the Zahra desert, which has this far frustrated exploration and development attempts across many regions. In spite of this, COPEC announced the discovery of new deposits in southeastern Charnea that the company estimated could yield 400 million barrels of crude oil, the largest discovery in the Charnean oil industry in over 65 years.
Financial Status
Taxation of COPEC revenue makes up an estimated 3/5ths of the tax revenue brought in by the Confederate government in Agnannet, and the company pays an estimated 70% or approximately 250 billion Dinars of its income in taxes and other fees and royalties to the government. This heavy tax burden combined with long standing debts from COPEC's down era of the 1980s and 90s has left the company an estimated 70 billion Dinars in debt. Although efforts have been made to repay portions of COPEC's debts, the company remains one of the most indebted petroleum companies in the world.
Controversies
Pollution and Land Rights
The land appropriated by the Charnean government for the exploitation of petroleum resources by COPEC, particularly the west Charnean oil fields, have been the source of long standing animosity of the tribes native to the region against COPEC, the Charnean government and other groups. Particularly, it is alleged by the tribes that COPEC has infringed on the leases and agreements by which the oil fields were granted to the Confederate government, surpassed the regions of the original land grants, obtained land grants through coercion and other illegal means, or caused undue harm to the tribal communities through pollution particularly of the ground water. These disputes have led not only to over 73 different cases in the Charnean justice system, including 13 disputes between courts of the Zewiya and Awakari constituent nations and the Confederate high courts. Additionally, at least two documented armed confrontation have occured, the first in 1977 against members of the Zewiya nation, and the again in 1998 against paramilitary fighters loyal to the Veiled Brotherhood. In light of the extensive conflict, the government of Kubra ult Lamine has established a compromise option with the cooperation of the local tribes and the COPEC board which establishes an agreement that COPEC will observe land rights of the native tribes and curb pollution according to targets set by a joint committee of tribesmen and COPEC officers in exchange for a waiver of dues and damages owed to the tribes by Charnean law which previous administrations had neglected to acknowledge. Conflicts in the west of Charnea have also spurred COPEC leadership to further invest in exploitation of newly discovered reserves to the southeast of Charnea, where agreements over usage of the land have been more forthcoming and straightforward.
Gozourgomat Report
What has since become known publicly as the Gozourgomat Report, colloquially nicknamed the Gozor, was a secret investigation launched by agents of the then new Lamine regime in 2001 closely following the events of the Triple Coup which, among other things, put ownership of COPEC in the hands of the Laminid political faction. The objective of the report was to follow up on decades of unconfirmed allegations of embezzlement by COPEC officials, many of the political appointees of former Executor Madoun. 159 arrests were conducted by Inquisitors of the high Charnean courts, leading of 144 convictions on charges ranging from embezzlement of funds to violations of transactions laws.