For Investors: Three Oil / Oil Service Companies Announce Increased Dividends

Transocean Seeks Approval for $1 Billion Dividend

ConocoPhillips Increases Dividend to 66 Cents/Share; Represents 20% Increase

OXY Increases Dividend by 21 Percent

A personal story. Many, many years ago, an oil company, Texaco declared bankruptcy due to a legal judgment against the company. It had nothing to do with the underlying value of the company prior to the judgment. The shares plummeted in price. Oh, I can't remember. I don't know if they plummeted, but they must have gone down. Who buys shares in a company that declares bankruptcy?

In this case, I did.

I couldn't believe it. I was a young investor, didn't have much money, but I thought that an oil company had a lot of assets in the ground, and although it might declare bankruptcy because it could not pay the judgment, something would be worked out.

Texaco suspended its dividends. The company did not pay dividends for three quarters or so. I forget the specifics.

But it finally got through it all, and came back stronger than ever. Texaco rewarded its shareholders -- who hung in with them all those months -- handsomely: a one-time special dividend, and then re-instated the dividend.

Makes me think of the Transocean story. Transocean was one of the companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico spill.

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Another story. It's taken quite awhile but remember how COP was said to have overpaid for natural gas assets in the Far East. They probably did. Maybe it worked out, maybe it didn't. I don't know. But they hung in there and now they are increasing their dividend. COP is back.