Oil and gas companies are extremely important in driving the business growth of companies worldwide. Not only do they provide fuel to individuals who have cars or distribute to homes, they are also the fuel to driving manufacturing companies and enterprises. Petrol, diesel, CNG etc are some of the major products given by the largest oil and gas companies in the world. The top oil and gas companies include names like PetroChina, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, BP, Aramco, Total, Chevron etc. Here is the list of the top 10 oil and gas companies in the world 2017 based on Revenue, Profit and Oil Barrel Production Volume.
The best oil and gas companies in the world have a huge network spread through pipelines and a strong distribution network worldwide. The industry is at an all time high in product, with the biggest oil & gas brands producing in excess of 2 million barrels per day. With the growing business across the world, this figure is only going to drive the petrol, oil, gas, diesel business globally.
Quick Glance at the Top Oil and Gas Companies in World 2017
1st place: PetroChina
2nd place: Royal Dutch Shell
3rd place: Exxon Mobil
4th place: BP
5th place: Saudi Aramco
6th place: Total
7th place: Chevron
8th place: Kuwait Petroleum
9th place: Gazprom
10th place: Rosneft
For More details about rankings and parameters, read on.
Largest Oil and Gas Companies 2017 Ranking with Parameters (Revenue, Profit and Production Volume):
10. Rosneft
Based out of Russia, Rosneft is one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world.
Image: Wikimedia
The government of Russia has a major stake in Rosneft, which makes the company very strong when it comes to operations and financial stability as compared to other private institutions. The company was found as recently as 1993 as compared to some of the other oil and gas companies. Rosneft has a strong business in Petroleum, Natural gas, Motor fuels and Petrochemicals. More than 250,000+ people are employed with the organization. The company has further increased its business with strong acquisitions across the world. As of 2016, Rosneft acquired a majority stake in Indian oil company Essar Oil. At its peak, the company had a staggering market value of in excess of 83 billion USD. With the growing businesses in Russia and its neighboring countries, the business of Rosneft is set to rise further, strengthening its market position in the oil and gas market.
Revenue billion USD: 89.1
Profit billion USD: 3.93
Production volume (Mn Barrels/Day): 2.6
9. Gazprom
Gazprom is a Public Joint Stock Company and is a Russian company which was founded in 1989, when the Soviet Ministry of Gas Industry was converted to a corporation, retaining all of its assets.
Image: Wikimedia
It carries on the business of extraction, production, transport, and sale of natural gas, largely in Russia. The company name is a portmanteau of the Russian words Gazovaya Promyshlennost. The headquarters of Gazprom are in Moscow. Although it is a private company, the Russian Government holds a majority stake in the company and Gazprom is involved in the Russian Government's diplomatic efforts which include setting of gas prices for export purposes, and access to pipelines by other nations. The Company’s share in the global and Russian reserves amounts to 17 and 72 per cent respectively. Gazprom holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves. Gazprom is a global energy company focused on all operations which are vertically integrated from upstream to downstream and includes geological exploration, production, transportation, storage, processing and sales of gas, gas condensate and oil, sales of gas as a vehicle fuel and aviation fuel, as well as generation and marketing of heat and electric power. Gazprom views its mission as ensuring a reliable, efficient and balanced supply of natural gas, other energy resources and their derivatives to consumers. Gazprom is placed among Russia’s top four oil producers. The Company also owns major power-generating assets accounting for some 17 per cent of the total installed capacity of the national energy system. Gazprom is the only producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Russia. The Company owns the world’s largest gas transmission system with a total length of 171.2 thousand kilometers. The company exports gas to more than 30 countries within and beyond the former Soviet Union. At present, the Company is actively implementing large-scale gas development projects in the Yamal Peninsula, the Arctic shelf, Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East with a number of projects abroad. It has a very big strategic goal to establish itself as a leader among global energy companies by basically diversifying sales markets to ensuring reliable supplies, improving operating efficiency and fulfilling its scientific and technical potential.
Revenue billion USD: 102.91
Profit billion USD: 16.88
Production volume (Mn Barrels/Day): 9.7
8. Kuwait Petroleum Corp
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation is Kuwait's national oil company, headquartered in Safat, Kuwait.
Image: company website
It was founded on 27 January 1980 and today through its subsidiaries it operates as a diversified energy company worldwide. The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) is fully owned by the State of Kuwait, and it primarily engages in both onshore and offshore upstream exploration and production. It is done through refining, marketing, retailing, petrochemicals, and marine transportation with fuel to power aircraft of the world, i.e. it has an equally strong uphold in the downstream operations of this Oil and Gas industry. The company’s products include crude oil, petroleum products, chemicals, fertilizers, and liquefied gas. To support its plan of internationalization it has several Regional Marketing Offices that are strategically located across the globe, from Houston to London, Mumbai and Pakistan to Singapore and Tokyo. These offices effectively contribute to the sales and marketing operations of KPC and its subsidiaries, in line with both its short-term and long-term strategies. They focus on building the regional market, establishing and maintaining relations with other key oil players, and finally increasing KPC's share in existing markets and entering new ones. The Corporation also provides significant support to the Kuwait Ministry of Oil in its dealings with other member countries of the OPEC. It focuses on delivering clean and safe fuel for motor vehicles, airplanes, ships, agriculture and power stations. It also provides several base petrochemical products that are essential for the industrial manufacturing of several basic amenities of our modern day.
Revenue billion USD: 104.31
Profit billion USD: 4.11
Production volume (Mn Barrels/Day): 3.2
7. Chevron
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation which is based in California State of the nation.
Image: Wikimedia
Its successor company is Standard Oil, which is headquartered in San Ramon, California, and present in more than 180 countries. In the year 1911, the federal government of the USA divided the Standard Oil Company into several divisions under the Sherman Antitrust Act. One of those divisions, the Standard Oil Co. (California), went on to become Chevron. It is listed in the Ney York Stock Exchange and S&P of the U.S.A. Chevron is present in every division of the oil, natural gas, and geothermal energy industries, starting from exploration and production to refining, marketing and transport; chemicals manufacturing and sales; and finally power generation. It was ranked sixteenth in the Forbes list of Fortune 500 companies in the year 2014. It was also one of the Seven Sisters that dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the 1970s. Apart from the conventional fuels, Chevron's alternative energy operations include geothermal, solar, wind power, biofuel, fuel cells, and hydrogen. The company has spent at least $2 billion on research and acquisition of renewable power ventures. Chevron also pioneered in launching a 29-MW thermal solar-to-steam plant in the Coalinga Field to produce steam for enhanced oil recovery. The project is the largest of its kind in the world. In 1933, Saudi Arabia granted California Standard a concession to find oil, which led to the discovery of oil in 1938. In 1948, California Standard discovered the world's largest oil field in Saudi Arabia, the Ghawar Field. California Standard's subsidiary, California-Arabian Standard Oil Company, grew over the years and became the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) in 1944. Chevron's downstream operations include manufacturing and selling of products such as fuels, lubricants, additives and petrochemicals. The upstream operations include like the exploration and production of crude oil to midstream transportation, power and trading. The Company’s most significant areas of operations include the west coast of North America, the U.S. Gulf Coast, Southeast Asia, South Korea, Australia and South Africa. They believe in innovation and the effective use of technology to maximize utilization out of mature fields, discover new ones and meet the world's growing demand for energy. Their technological capabilities have constantly evolved to meet these new challenges and have played a pivotal role in bringing affordable energy that is a catalyst for economic growth and prosperity. While protecting the environment and working with our partners to strengthen communities, they operate all their activities in the most sustainable way.
Revenue billion USD: 114.47
Profit billion USD: -0.49
Production volume (Mn Barrels/Day): 3.5
6. Total
Total S.A. is a French multinational completely integrated oil and gas company that is counted one among the seven "Supermajor" oil companies in the world.
Image: Wikimedia
Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain form the upstream to the downstream, ie from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international crude oil and product trading. Total is also a large scale chemicals manufacturer. Total is a major player in solar energy with SunPower and Total Solar. Total has its head office in Paris, France with 903 subsidiaries consolidated into the group, as of 2014, with significant affiliate investments and joint ventures, mostly in LPG. The company is listed on the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index. The company has its foundation after World War I, when then French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré rejected the idea of forming a partnership with Royal Dutch Shell in favor of creating an entirely different and independent French oil company. The French state invested and received the 25% share held by Deutsche Bank in the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) as part of the compensation for war damages caused by Germany during World War I & the French government's stake in TPC was transferred to CFP under the Red Line agreement in 1928 that rearranged the shareholding of CPF in TPC to 23.75%. The company from the start was regarded as a private sector company because of its listing on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1929. The company renamed itself Total CFP in 1985, to build on the popularity of its gasoline brand. But later in 1991, the name was changed to Total, when it became a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange alongside the Euro Stock market. Since September 2016, this company has set up a new arm to achieve its “One Total” company ambition to become a responsible energy major, because it is diverse with footprints in each of these: Exploration & Production, Gas, Renewables & Power, Refining & Chemicals, Trading & Shipping, Marketing & Services, and Total Global Services. It strongly believes in people and social responsibility with regard to building human capital, safety and environment concerns and a new civil society engagement division. Apart from all these, its strategy & innovation resides in Strategy & Climate Division, responsible for ensuring that Total’s strategy incorporates the 2 °C global warming scenario. It believes that energy is a vital component of meeting the challenge to keep global temperature change below 2°C. It will require making a monumental shift. Total is actively working on this transformation to deliver its objectives in the most sustainable way.
Revenue billion USD: 149.74
Profit billion USD: 6.20
Production volume (Mn Barrels/Day): 2.7
5. Aramco
Based out of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, this giant is the world’s largest producer of Oil and Gas, which has been in existence for the past 83 years, been founded in 1933.
Image: Wikimedia
It is a totally vertically integrated company which undertakes exploration, extraction, refining, distribution, shipping and marketing of all petrochemical products. It also exports crude oil to nations (for refinement at their establishments) which are deficient in energy produce. They believe that energy is an opportunity and that no nation should lag behind in development because of unmet energy demands. They have been and are continuing to be the most reliable energy suppliers to the Kingdom and to the rest of the world with a daily production of 12.5 million barrels per day. Still not a listed company, this company operates the world’s largest onshore oil field, the Ghawar Field as well as the world’s largest offshore oil field, the Safaniya Field. But since the world oil prices slippage in 2014 which lead to a sharp economic decline in Saudi, it prompted the company to sell its stake in IPO and create jobs in non-oil industries like manufacturing, infrastructure, etc. They have their subsidiaries and affiliates located across the globe in China, Egypt, Japan, India, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States apart from Saudi Arabia.
Revenue billion USD: 182
Production volume (Mn Barrels/Day): 12.5
4. BP
BP P.L.C. is a British multinational Oil and Gas Company, headquartered in London.
Image: geograph
BP is one of the members of the world’s seven oil and gas “supermajors”, which is the sixth largest company by volumes of production and is a complete vertically integrated company operating in exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It also has side arms focusing on renewable sources of energy like biofuels and wind power. It has its presence in more than 70 countries with BP America as its largest division. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and secondary listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and deals in products ranging from fuels for transportation, energy for heat, light to petrochemical products used in making everyday items like plastic bottles, paints. In 2010, it is accused of the second largest ever oil spill accident (Deepwater Horizon oil spill), by the USA BP division, resulting in of 560-585 thousand tonnes of oil spillage in the Gulf of Mexico. This resulted in a huge loss of revenue, image crisis and loss of market value but owing to its magnanimous scale, it could easily bounce back by paying the fines and rebuilding their image. Now it is committed to sustainability in every approach, least environmental degradation and strives to foster a harmony between its activities and well-being of all its stakeholders. As a result of which it could bounce back to good profitability by the year 2016.
Revenue billion USD: 183.00
Profit billion USD: 0.17
Production volume (Mn Barrels/Day): 4.1
3. Exxon Mobil
Exxon Mobil is one of the most well recognized and biggest oil companies worldwide.
Image: Wikimedia
Exxon Mobil, among the top global Oil and Gas Companies, headquartered in Irving, Texas, was formed in 1999 by the merger of Exxon (an oil company based out of New Jersey) and Mobil (another oil company based out of New York). With a daily production of 5.3 million barrels per day, it ranks fourth in terms of both productions by volume and revenue generation. They have a presence in not only the petrochemical products but also products derived from hydrocarbons like Plasticizers, Chemicals, etc. They are committed to carbon capture and storage, optimizing energy efficiency, and sustainability in all their operations through cutting-edge technologies. Its sustainability concept stands on three pillars of Social, Economic and Environmental impact. Some of their technologies for capturing carbon and its storage includes Advanced Carbon fuel cell technology and Controlled freeze zone and have incorporated Cogeneration for optimizing energy efficiency. They have a deep concern for preserving the environment and believe in delivering quality products that meet or exceed the expectations of their customers through Global Product Quality Management System (GPQMS). It has a presence in 21 countries with 37 oil refineries and meets about 3% of the world’s oil and 2% of its energy needs.
Revenue billion USD: 226.09
Profit billion USD: 7.8
Production volume (Mn Barrels/Day): 5.3
2. Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell, or simply known as Shell, is a global leader in oil and gas.
Image: Wikimedia
Shell, formed in 1907, through the amalgamation of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company of the Netherlands and the "Shell" Transport and Trading Company of the United Kingdom is headquartered in the Netherlands. The company is placed at the sixth rank in terms of production by volume. It is also one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". The Royal Dutch Shell plc, incorporated on February 5, 2002, is responsible for exploration of crude oil and natural gas around the world, both in conventional fields and from sources, such as tight rock, shale and coal formations. On the other hand, Shell is a global conglomerate of energy and petrochemical companies responsible for outperforming development projects and investing in R&D that leads to low-cost investments for the future. Their operations are divided into four arms: Upstream (exploration for new liquids and natural gas reserves), Integrated Gas and New Energies (on liquefying natural gas (LNG) and converting gas to compressed liquids), Downstream (turning crude oil into a range of refined products), and Projects & Technology (meeting the global energy needs in a responsible way) alongside managing the Corporate and creating values for their shareholders. But their major strategic focus lies in the technological innovation required to meet the growing complex demands of modern world. They have a diverse workforce working together on t\some of the most innovative and challenging projects of the world, leading to better solutions that have a fruitful impact on the future. They were the first company to publish their values under the title General Business Principles in 1976 which laid down the fore ground for other companies to pursue a sustainable development, striving to realize long term interests rather than fulfilling short term needs and integrating environmental and social welfare parameters in all their developmental activities. Its presence is in various sectors like Retail, Lubricants, Business to Business (B2B), Pipelines, and Biofuels and alternative energies like biofuels and wind power generation. In trading segment, it trades crude oil, oil products and petrochemicals with various nations of the world. Through its marine activities arm, it provides lubricants, as well as fuels and related technical services, to the shipping and maritime sectors. Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry. It has its operations in over 70 countries and 44,000 service stations worldwide. Shell has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Revenue billion USD: 233.59
Profit billion USD: 4.77
Production volume (Mn Barrels/Day): 3.9
1. PetroChina
PetroChina, founded in the year 1999, is the largest oil and gas producer and distributor in China and one of the largest in the world.
Image: company website
With its focus on three strategies of acquiring best resources, marketing and internationalization, it is committed to harnessing energy with maximum environment protection as symbolized by its logo. Headquartered in Beijing, China, this company operates its business through five segments: Exploration and Production, Refining and Chemicals, Marketing, Natural Gas exploration and its pipeline, and other segment like cash management, financial activities, R&D, etc. This company takes full advantage of economies of scale and completely integrated operations from upstream (exploration and extraction from oil reserves) to downstream (refining through fractional distillation and distributing) businesses. It is the listed arm of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, being traded in Hong Kong and New York Stock Exchanges, it adheres to its core strategy of revenue maximization and diversifying its operations both in domestic and overseas markets by acquiring maximum resources, to increase their shareholders’ and stakeholders’ values. The company has capitalized on China’s “One Belt, One Road” policy consolidate its five key oil and gas operational regions, and has adhered to a low cost marketing strategy because of the unfavorable climate of declining crude oil and natural gas prices. They have been able to cut down on costs by strengthening dynamic adjustment of output, intensifying control of key production processes, and reduction of energy usage and wastage to trod the path of better efficiency. It has adopted a price driven sales strategy in its overseas business and has focused on broadening its revenue sources.
Revenue billion USD: 234.76
Profit billion USD: 4.26
Production volume (Mn Barrels/Day): 4.4
Rank Methodology:
1. The leading oil and gas companies are considered for evaluation
2. Parameters like revenues, production capacity and profits are taken into consideration
3. The companies are ranked on the basis of their revenues