When analyzing asset ownership in Lens Upstream, it is important to distinguish between:
Company Level settings that determine the ownership perspective being displayed.
Ownership-related columns in a table that explain how and why ownership has been attributed in the results.
Together, these help us understand both who owns an asset and how that ownership is represented within a corporate hierarchy.
Company Level Settings
The Company Level setting controls which ownership view is applied. You will find this setting in any charts and tables related to companies.
Option | Definition |
Direct | Shows ownership of asset held directly by a company. |
Ultimate | Shows ownership rolled up to the highest parent company. |
All* | Shows direct, ultimate, and intermediate companies (available in some dashboards such as Resources and Production). |
Let’s use a practical example to better illustrate the relationship.
CNOOC is a parent company of multiple subsidiaries, among them is CNOOC International in which CNOOC (indirectly) owns 62.08%. CNOOC International has a direct interest in the Buzzard field in the UK of 43.21%.
In Lens Upstream > Ownership section, we can use the Field Interest Breakdown chart to see this in action. Use the Company Level dropdown option against the chart to toggle between “Direct" or "Ultimate".
Direct Ownership
Direct ownership returns companies that legally hold interest in the asset, as either operator or partner. In the case of Buzzard, we see CNOOC International being returned as one of its owners – not CNOOC – because the legal entity who holds the direct participation in the asset is CNOOC International.
For more detailed information on ownership and percentages of interest, the accompanying data table (accessed via the table icon ) will also illustrate the Ownership chain of the companies involved in the asset you are looking at:
In summary, selecting “Direct” in the company-level settings is best for:
Analysing legal ownership
Reviewing portfolios
Identifying asset-holding entities
Understanding directly held interests
Ultimate Ownership
Ultimate ownership applies corporate hierarchy roll-up logic and attributes ownership to the highest parent company. If we select that in the field interest breakdown, then we will see CNOOC instead. The equity percentage of 26.83% reflects both the corporate ownership of CNOOC International and the field interest, i.e. CNOOC’s 62.8% stake in CNOOC International multiplied by the 43.21% interest CNOOC International has in Buzzard = 62.08% x 43.21% = 26.824768… rounded up to 26.83%.
The table shows:
To recap, selecting “Ultimate” in the company-level settings is best for:
Parent company analysis
Corporate exposure assessments
Competitive benchmarking
Understanding total attributable ownership
Tip: It's important to be mindful that companies may be missing from the chart given the company filters applied and settings selected, and that’s to be expected given the complexity of corporate hierarchy and asset ownerships. If, however, we’re looking to get the full picture of production or resources without missing anyone and without wanting to consider at which company-level to filter, etc., we can keep it at company-level = All setting, add the ownership-related columns, and map out the relationships.
Understanding "All" Company Level
Now in Resources and Production dashboards, we may see three options instead:
The Ultimate ownership option – can be used to see a ranking of the ultimate owners of resources. All ultimate company value metrics will total 100%.
The Direct ownership option – will show a ranking of the direct owners of all resources. All direct company metric values will total 100%.
The All option – will display a ranking of direct owners, ultimate owners, and any intermediate owners in between. The total metric values in this view may result in a sum of more than 100% (due to double counting).
Tip: Only select “All” with full knowledge that it may lead to double-counting of the resources and production figures. In addition, because the ownership in the same asset can appear at multiple levels in some special cases, the total may exceed 100%. This view, however, is useful when users want to see the complete ownership structure rather than a single ownership perspective.
Example #1
The asset Cottonwood has two legal entities directly participating: CNOOC Ltd (35%, partner) and CNOOC International (65%, operator). CNOOC International is a 100% subsidiary of CNOOC Ltd, which in turn is 62.08% owned by CNOOC.
Below are snapshots of its Net Remaining Resources (WI) chart, colored by company, at different company-level settings.
With a Direct setting, we will see both CNOOC Ltd and CNOOC International shown.
If we switch to the Ultimate setting, we see CNOOC the parent and some private investors.
Then if we switch to the All setting, suddenly we see everyone and the sum of the resources exceeds what the asset has. This is because we’re showing all levels of the corporate hierarchy and each entity’s volume without considering that some may overlap. But this can also be useful to map out both direct and indirect interests CNOOC has in the asset.
Understanding Ownership-related Columns
While Company Level determines what is returned, ownership columns explain why a result appears. The columns/attributes we will discuss in this section are:
Company is top level – a flag attribute that returns Y or N:
Y indicates that the company is the highest in the corporate hierarchy
N means that it’s a subsidiary of another
Field interest is direct – a flag attribute that returns Y or N:
Y indicates that the company holds direct interest in the asset
N means that the company holds indirect interest in the asset. In other words, another company in the ownership chain directly owns it.
Company to field ownership chain – explains the relationship between a company and an asset.
Company to subsidiary relationship – defines the company’s relationship to its corresponding subsidiaries
Example
Let's go back to our Cottonwood asset. In the Asset dashboard > Company Field Summary table, here’s what we’ll see if we have all those columns (note: we’ve selected the All settings).
Expand the above image to map the relationship of each named company to the asset carefully.
Take CNOOC for example, and we see:
Company is top level = Y
Field interest is direct = N
But it's both operator and partner through its interests in both subsidiaries CNOOC International and CNOOC Ltd, and the ownership paths also reflects this in two rows
Combining all these columns together help us piece together where CNOOC's place is in the entire ownership chain, and therefore how it's displayed in the charts and tables throughout Lens Upstream.
Summary
Understanding corporate hierarchy and at which level an asset is owned requires us to look at both the Company Level setting in charts/tables and adding clarifying ownership-related columns.
Company Level settings:
Direct – shows the company that legally holds the asset interest.
Ultimate – rolls ownership up to the highest parent company.
All – used with caution to view the full ownership chain, though totals may exceed 100% because companies can appear at multiple levels of the hierarchy.
Ownership-related columns:
Company Is Top Level describes where a company sits in the corporate hierarchy.
Field Interest Is Direct indicates whether the company directly owns the asset.
Company to Field Chain and Company to Subsidiary Category explain the ownership path used for attribution.
What's Next?
Now we have explored the different types of company-level ownership for an asset, review the following: