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The Forbes Global 2000 is a list released by Forbes, the American business magazine, that rates and then ranks the world’s top 2000 publicly traded global companies. The companies are judged under four different criteria – sales, profit, assets and market value.
Obviously in the oil and gas industry the following companies are relative minnows compared to huge state-owned energy giants like Saudi Aramco, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and Qatar Petroleum. To give you an idea, the six largest international oil companies are responsible for around 3% of the world’s total output. ExxonMobil’s oil reserves account for less than 1% of the world’s total.
However it gives you a good idea of the financial might of the Saudi Aramcos of this world when despite the relative small scale of the IOCs oil production, four oil and gas companies are in the actual Forbes top ten (with an honourable mention going to Total at number 11).
- Royal Dutch Shell
- ExxonMobil
- BP
- Chevron
- Total
- Gazsprom
- PetroChina
- ENI
- Petrobras-Petróleo Brasil
- Sinopec-China Petroleum
Click on name to read description
All figures in US$ (billions)
Numbers in brackets indicate where the company placed on the Forbes Global 2000 list.
1. (2) Royal Dutch Shell (Netherlands)Â
Sales: 458.36 Profits: 26.28 Assets: 278.44 Market value: 135.10
The Anglo-Dutch company came second in the overall list behind General Electric of the United States and heads the oil and gas companies. The Netherlands-based outfit started life back in 1833 as a shell trading company in London, but has come a long way since then. This year will see a change at the top as the current CEO, Jeroen van der Veer, is due to retire in June. With a reputation for handling transitional periods with a clinical smoothness, it should be business as usual for the company and despite the current climate, business is still very good for Shell. With operations in over 140 countries and covering almost every single aspect of the hydrocarbons industry, the energy giant is a worthy winner.
Fact: When collecting shells by the Caspian Sea, Marcus Samuel, the son of the company’s founder, had the idea to start importing lamp oil from the area back to the UK. To do this he needed a ship so he commissioned the world’s first specially built oil tanker – the Murex. The word is Latin for a type of snail shell.
2. (4) ExxonMobil (United States) Â Â Â
Sales: 425.70 Profits: 45.22 Assets: 228.05 Market value: 335.54
Were it not for the vagaries of Forbes’s judging criteria the American energy giant would be number one on both lists. In fact why ExxonMobil is not the top company is anyone’s guess. What else does it have to do?
The company shouldn’t lose too much sleep over it. If there was a list for the companies least affected by the current economic downturn it would take something very special (or Forbes-like vague judging criteria) to knock ExxonMobil off the top spot. The company’s CEO, Rex Tillerson, recently stated that the company had no plans for any job cuts and had a massive $129 billion dollars to invest in the next five years.
Fact: Both Exxon and Mobil are direct descendents of the early oil giant Standard Oil. When the company was forced to split into smaller entities Jersey Standard was the initial name of Exxon and Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony) was the initial name of Mobil. If Standard Oil was still trading today then it would quite easily be worth in excess of $1 trillion.
3. (5) BP (United Kingdom)Â Â Â
Sales: 361.14 Profits: 21.16 Assets: 228.24 Market value: 119.70
The British company has maybe the most interesting history on the list. The initial incarnation of BP was granted a concession by the Shah of Iran in 1901 to search for oil. Seven years later the company made the first significant discovery in the Middle East.
The 70 years that the company remained in Iran were full of political intrigue and included bogus claims of communism, military coups and the eventual renationalising of BP’s assets (with no compensation being paid to the company) by Ayatollah Khomeini.   Â
The company is now just your boring, average, everyday energy giant. Okay, maybe it’s a little bit above average.
Fact: During the company’s privatisation in the 1980s, the Kuwaiti government tried to buy a controlling stake in the company. The move was blocked after major opposition in the UK’s parliament.Â
4. (9) Chevron (United States)
Sales: 255.11 Profits: 23.93 Assets: 161.17 Market value: 121.70
The California-based ‘supermajor’ is another ‘baby’ Standard and was originally known as Standard Oil of California. The company has interests in over 180 countries and has numerous joint venture projects in the Middle East.
Fact: When the company was known as Standard Oil of California, a subsidiary, California-Arabian Standard Oil Company, was responsible for finding the world’s largest oilfield, the Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia. The subsidiary evolved into the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) and was eventually entirely owned by Saudi Arabia and was renamed Saudi Aramco. Saudi Aramco is the largest oil company of any kind in the world and has a staggering 25% of the world’s oil reserves at its disposal.
5. (11) Total (France)Â Â Â
Sales: 223.15 Profits: 14.74 Assets: 164.66 Market value: 112.90
To give you an idea of how the big oil and gas companies dominated the main Forbes list, the French energy giant finished in a lofty 11th place overall but could still only manage fifth on the oil and gas list. Another ‘supermajor’, the company has its headquarters in Paris, operates in more than 130 countries and has over 96,400 employees.
Fact: In typical French style, the company was founded after a partnership offer from Royal Dutch Shell was abruptly rejected by the French government after World War I.
6. (13) Gazprom (Russia)
Sales: 97.29 Profits: 26.78 Assets: 276.81 Market value: 74.55
The labyrinthine workings of the Russian energy behemoth makes the Forbes judging criteria look like child’s play. Gazprom is the largest provider of natural gas in the world (or as the people of the Ukraine would tell you, the largest non-provider). With 16% of the world’s gas reserves as well as being involved in various projects across the globe, Gazprom finished a creditable sixth on our list.
However after Russia cut off supplies to Ukraine in January many other countries experienced disruptions in supply and as a result many of Russia’s neighbours are starting to look to other countries to supply them with their gas. Great news for Qatar, not so great for Gazprom.
Fact 1: The European Union gets around 25% of its gas from the company.
Fact 2: The company sponsors two football teams – Zenit St Petersburg in Russia and Schalke 04 in Germany.
7. (14) PetroChina (China)
Sales: 114.32 Profits: 19.94 Assets: 145.14 Market value: 270.56
Established in 1999, PetroChina is Asia’s biggest company and mainland China’s largest oil producer. The company is the stock market listed arm of the state owned energy giant China National Petroleum and enjoys a near duopoly in the Chinese market with Sinopec. The company is the highest placed Chinese company on the list. In fact with a market value of $270.56 billion (only bettered by ExxonMobil) PetroChina may well be disappointed only to finish in 14th place on the full Forbes list.
Fact: The market value of PetroChina tripled when it first appeared on the Shanghai index. Thus the company became the first in history to have market capitalisation of one trillion US dollars.
8. (18) ENI (Italy)
Sales: 158.32 Profits: 12.91 Assets: 278.44 Market value: 135.10
Italy’s largest industrial company has interests across the hydrocarbons industry and produces around 1.7 million barrels per day of oil equivalent. The Italian government still has a 38% golden share in the company and has come under criticism from other members of the European Union for the over zealous exercising of its power of veto.
Fact: AGIP, a subsidiary of Eni managed to break the monopoly of the major oil companies in the 1950s by offering the producer countries a contract where they received a share of the profits.
9 (25) Petrobras-Petróleo Brasil (Brazil)
Sales: 92.08 Profits: 14.12 Assets: 120.68 Market value: 110.97
This huge semi-public company was the brainchild of the controversial Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas. Petrobras has interests in most areas of the hydrocarbons industry, but is a true world leader in the development of technology for deep-water and ultra-deep water oil production.
Fact 1: To continue the football sponsorship theme, Petrobras sponsor Flamengo in Brazil and River Plate in Argentina. They also sponsor the Williams Formula 1 team and numerous arts and cultural projects.
Fact 2: Petrobras is the main supporter of whale conservation and research through the Brazilian Right Whale Project and the Instituto Baleia Jubarte (Brazilian Humpback Whale Institute).
10 (33) Sinopec-China Petroleum (China)
Sales: 154.28 Profits: 7.43 Assets: 100.41 Market value: 93.50
Our final company is a mere infant compared to other names on this list. However, even though it is a youngster it is still a force to be reckoned with. Sinopec’s business interests cover the whole spectrum of the oil and gas industry.
Fact: The company opened the first drive-through petrol station and fast-food restaurant in China in 2007. Hopefully the restaurant enforces a strict no-smoking policy.
Sources:
www.forbes.com
www.timesonline.co.uk
www.reuters.com
www.britannica.com
www.wikipedia.com
Company websites (links above)
