Esso Australia is a branch of the worldwide energy titan ExxonMobile, the American oil titan. Before the revolution, it owned much of the Bass Strait's oil and gas deposits, though it was ousted by both Melbourne's people and its main competitor, Woodside Petroleum. However, thanks to covert American subsidies and the rest of its assets around the country, Esso Australia has been on an offensive against Woodside in what some have dubbed "the Gas Wars". This is not because of the use of poison gas, which has only been "moderate".