Corporate Structure and Regulatory Risk in the Oil & Gas Industry

Oil & gas production supplies vital energy to our economy, but can also be responsible for environmental pollution. Failure to comply with environmental regulations poses financial risks to investors, as well as risks to society's health and well-being. With increasing public concern about hydraulic fracturing, new regulations on production practices may be imposed. A large body of financial research suggests that corporate management and governance practices can affect environmental compliance. In this project, we link historical compliance records for individual oil & gas facilities to their corporate parents using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) database, and evaluate the relationship between corporate structure and compliance behavior. With this, we can measure how corporate finance practices in the oil and gas industries affect compliance risk and environmental stewardship, and to identify industry practices that lead to lower compliance risk.