The oil industry is the main industry in the global fuel and energy industry. It not only affects international economic relations, but also often causes military conflicts. This article presents the rating of the largest companies in the world that occupy leading positions in oil production.
Rating Criteria
When compiling the oil rating, experts evaluate the largest companies in the world according to the following main criteria:
- volumes of extraction of raw materials;
- available reserves;
- processing facilities;
- financial results of an oil company;
- sales volumes of oil and its refined products.
It is important to note that the results of all known ratings may differ from each other. This is due to the use of different criteria during the assessment. For example, an Energy Intelligence rating is compiled on the basis of quantitative production indicators (production level, reserves, refining and sales volumes), and financial characteristics are missed. We will review the list of the best oil companies that Forbes first compiled.
Forbes oil giant rating
Forbes provided its list, which presents the largest oil companies in the world in 2014. The list includes 25 companies that produce the largest amount of oil in the world. Let us dwell on the most powerful giants of this rating.
Saudi aramco
Saudi Arabia is considered the world leader in the oil industry. Saudi Aramco Corporation is the largest national energy corporation. She owns a network of refining capacities, manages the transportation of oil. Saudi Aramco has the largest and newest fleet of supertankers that even the largest companies in the world cannot compare with.
According to the rating, in 2014 the corporation produced oil in the largest volumes - more than 12 million barrels per day. The country produces a large amount of oil on the plains of the Eastern province. The company also has wells in the territorial waters of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
Today, the company's head office manages 99% of all Saudi Arabian gold reserves, accounting for of the world's proven oil reserves.
Gazprom Neft Company
This enterprise is a powerful Russian oil company. The company is engaged in the exploration of the location of raw materials, production and sale of oil and gas, as well as the production of petroleum products. Company branches operate in all oil and gas regions of the country. The main processing enterprises are located in the Yaroslavl, Omsk and Moscow regions. In addition, Gazprom Neft successfully implements oil production projects in Venezuela, Iraq and other countries. The largest companies in the world offer Russia contracts for cooperation in the oil industry.
Gazprom Neft Group consists of 80 structural divisions in Russia and abroad. Thanks to a well-established distribution scheme, the company sells a lot of oil in the domestic market of the country and abroad. Gazprom Neft has more than 1,700 gas stations in Russia, the CIS and Europe.
According to Forbes estimates, Gazprom Neft took the second position in the ranking of “The largest oil companies in the world in 2014” with a production volume of 9.7 million barrels per day.
National Iranian Oil Company
Oil production in Iran began in 1908. 40 years later, the Iranian Oil Ministry established the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), whose goals were to search for oil and attract foreign capital. By that time, black gold had occupied a key position in the economic development of the country, therefore, the extraction of black gold received the status of a public property and passed into full control of the Government.
Now the company is engaged in the extraction of gas and oil, their transportation and export. The company primarily supplies manufacturing enterprises and oil refineries within the country, and sells surpluses abroad in accordance with the OPEC quota.
NIOC is considered one of the largest oil corporations in the world. It has 1/10 of the world's oil reserves. The company owns oil and gas areas in Iran, Azerbaijan and the North Sea. NIOC's operations are very extensive: the units are engaged in exploration, drilling, production, processing and transportation of resources. The company has 21 subsidiaries, two of which are the largest.
In the ranking of “The World’s Biggest Companies 2014," the NIOC is in third place with 6.4 million barrels of oil per day. Iran belongs to the world oil leaders, but due to the introduction of international sanctions against it, the company was forced to reduce the volume of black gold.
Exxonmobil
ExxonMobil began operations on the basis of the Standard Oil Trust, founded by American billionaire John Rockefeller in 1882. A well-known corporation today was created at the end of the 20th century as a result of the merger of the two brands Exxon and Mobil, under which automobile oils and lubricants are now produced.
The American Petroleum Corporation is engaged in the development of new oil fields, its production, transportation and sale. ExxonMobil also produces petroleum products: olefins, polyethylene, polypropylene and aromatic substances. The company actively participates in international economic relations and cooperates with 47 countries.
ExxonMobil Oil Company is the largest international energy corporation. She is considered the leader in the ranking of successful and expensive enterprises, which includes the largest companies in the world. ExxonMobil's market value is more than 400 billion US dollars. In terms of quantitative indicators of oil production (about 5 million barrels per day), the corporation ranks fourth in the international rating.
Petrochina
PetroChina is China's largest oil company. The largest companies in the world compete with it for stock prices. PetroChina securities are traded on the New York and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges. After the issue of shares in Shanghai, the market value of the oil company tripled, reaching a capitalization of more than a trillion US dollars.
In addition to oil production and refining, PetroChina is engaged in resource exploration, chemical refining , pipeline production and marketing. According to Forbes, the company ranked fifth in the ranking of world oil corporations with a production rate of 4.4 million barrels per day.
Oil production forecasts
World oil giants are planning to reduce black gold mining operations due to the rapid drop in oil prices in the summer of 2014. Due to this situation in the market, the profitability of companies has significantly decreased. Although ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, PetroChina and other major oil companies of the world made big profits, some of them decided to stop expanding their activities and close the least profitable lines. According to The Wall Street Journal, this is due to the ever-increasing cost of gas and oil production. For example, ExxonMobil's margin for 2014 was 26%, which is 9% less than ten years ago.
Significant changes in the oil market were made by the accident in the Gulf of Mexico, as a result of which a record amount of black gold spilled. The British company British Petroleum, which owned the production, was forced to sell most of its assets.
Such a reduction in operations is observed not only in large oil companies. Changes in oil prices have affected the entire world industry.
Despite this trend, the world's largest companies expect positive changes in the oil industry and an increase in the extraction of natural raw materials in the future.