Four American petroleum giants had agreements with the African nation before its civil war began.

But the city government has shown no inclination to stand up to the powerful public petroleum giant.

Both T. Boone Pickens and James E. Lee, the chairman of Gulf Oil Corporation, visited him during the Texan's celebrated raid on the petroleum giant.

And so the celebrations at Thanksgiving tables have been muted in this town of 35,000 people where about 2,400 work for Phillips and where nearly every other business has benefited from the presence of the petroleum giant.

Alfred Sirven, 73, who has been on the run for three years, is accused of paying off leading politicians as part of rampant corruption said to have taken place in the 1990's at the formerly state-owned petroleum giant.

The company posted a net loss of $500,000 for the quarter and attributed the results to an $800,000 increase in inventory charges related to higher fuel costs and to expenses related to its sale to Lukoil, the Russian petroleum giant.

Mr. Kumar's employer near Allahabad - Reliance Industries Ltd., one of India's largest private conglomerates and a petroleum giant - is planning 5,000 stations.

The building's anchor tenant, in which the building was named, is Philippine petroleum giant Petron Corporation.

With $35 billion in revenue last year, including its MCI subsidiary, WorldCom now counts among its corporate customers Aflac, the reinsurance company; BP, the petroleum giant; and Providian, the financial services provider.

Oil stocks, however, fell as traders grew cautious about the potential of the international petroleum giants.