John, as you note, this is another example of Unocal doing all the right things. If you look at its additions to reserves from new discoveries over the past five years, you'll see that the pattern is very consistent, and the additions are greater percentagewise than for many other, more popular oil and gas companies.
As to the patent royalties on RFG (reformulated gasoline), I think that the big companies like Exxon, Chevron, etc., which got caught infringing are really mad and are trying anything to get around paying these royalties. One way around may be the increased use of ethanol, made from corn, but the fact is that ethanol, despite its lower pollution levels, is still more costly to make than the RFG additives, if you include all the subsidies.
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