As such, ConocoPhillips' fortunes are more leveraged to oil and natural gas prices relative to other large names like ExxonMobil, which has a more diversified business model. Differences matter If you have $10,000, ConocoPhillips is a way to add energy to your portfolio that will help protect your wallet from the ravages of inflation (noting that the variable dividend can go down as well as up as oil prices fluctuate). Shell (NYSE: SHEL) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) are two names you might want to look at, but for very different reasons.