Biggest companies in the oil and gas industry
Making a list of the biggest oil companies in the world is a difficult task, to put it mildly. There is no uniform yardstick for measuring how big the company is and, importantly, how much bigger it is than the other big oil companies. Without this clear-cut line of differentiation, statisticians have often stumbled over the idea of creating a perfect measuring device to decide on the biggest oil company.
On what basis does one judge oil companies? What should be taken into account while trying to measure, which are the biggest oil companies? It is often found that state-owned oil-based companies operate differently from the government-owned companies. Also, there are far too many points on which they can be ranked. The assets, reserves, production and revenue of the company go to make it what it is. So which one of the aspects does one take into consideration?
The other problem is that, even though statistical data can be collected on all these aspects, the results will vary from time to time. So this cannot be considered accurate either. Some companies merge together, so calculating their produce accurately also becomes difficult. That is again another problem with deciding on the ‘biggest oil companies' factor.
The largest non-state-owned oil companies in the US are Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and Chevron-Texaco. Though ExxonMobil is one of the biggest oil companies, it owns less than 20% of the entire world's oil resources. BHP, an Australian oil company, also can be considered among the world's biggest oil companies, but so are so many others all around the world, like Repsol, YPF, Chinese Petroleum and many others.
There are a couple of hundreds of oil companies in the US itself, that create a turnover of billions. So what do you consider here - only oil producers or do you also take into account refineries and natural gas companies as well?
When statisticians talk about biggest oil companies, they actually mean the ones that make a lot of money and pay high wages. But it is the natural oil producing companies in the Gulf that enjoy the lion's share of the oil reserves. One such giant is Saudi Aramco, which owns at least ten times more oil reserves than Exxon.
The Oil and Gas Journal tries to glean more or less accurate information on companies depending on their expenditure and turnover in a given year. For the year 2002, eleven companies were ranked as the top oil companies. They were ExxonMobil, BPL, Shell, Chevron-Texaco, TotalFinaElf, ConocoPhillips, Pemex, AGIP, PDVSA, Petrobras and Petronas.
Also taking into account natural gas companies, the following were found to be the biggest oil companies in 2004:
BP, ExxonMobil, Devon Energy, Chevron-Texaco, ConocoPhillips, Burlington resources, Shell, Anadarko, Kerr-McGee and Chesapeake Operating.
It becomes difficult to judge a company's position just by taking a few factors into consideration. This is the greatest challenge statisticians and economists face across the world. With the oil-rich countries holding huge reserves of oil, natural gas companies and other new oil companies mushrooming all over the world every year, it becomes an impossible task to analyze the entire oil market and decide on which company supersedes which one in that given year.
On what basis does one judge oil companies? What should be taken into account while trying to measure, which are the biggest oil companies? It is often found that state-owned oil-based companies operate differently from the government-owned companies. Also, there are far too many points on which they can be ranked. The assets, reserves, production and revenue of the company go to make it what it is. So which one of the aspects does one take into consideration?
The other problem is that, even though statistical data can be collected on all these aspects, the results will vary from time to time. So this cannot be considered accurate either. Some companies merge together, so calculating their produce accurately also becomes difficult. That is again another problem with deciding on the ‘biggest oil companies' factor.
The largest non-state-owned oil companies in the US are Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and Chevron-Texaco. Though ExxonMobil is one of the biggest oil companies, it owns less than 20% of the entire world's oil resources. BHP, an Australian oil company, also can be considered among the world's biggest oil companies, but so are so many others all around the world, like Repsol, YPF, Chinese Petroleum and many others.
There are a couple of hundreds of oil companies in the US itself, that create a turnover of billions. So what do you consider here - only oil producers or do you also take into account refineries and natural gas companies as well?
When statisticians talk about biggest oil companies, they actually mean the ones that make a lot of money and pay high wages. But it is the natural oil producing companies in the Gulf that enjoy the lion's share of the oil reserves. One such giant is Saudi Aramco, which owns at least ten times more oil reserves than Exxon.
The Oil and Gas Journal tries to glean more or less accurate information on companies depending on their expenditure and turnover in a given year. For the year 2002, eleven companies were ranked as the top oil companies. They were ExxonMobil, BPL, Shell, Chevron-Texaco, TotalFinaElf, ConocoPhillips, Pemex, AGIP, PDVSA, Petrobras and Petronas.
Also taking into account natural gas companies, the following were found to be the biggest oil companies in 2004:
BP, ExxonMobil, Devon Energy, Chevron-Texaco, ConocoPhillips, Burlington resources, Shell, Anadarko, Kerr-McGee and Chesapeake Operating.
It becomes difficult to judge a company's position just by taking a few factors into consideration. This is the greatest challenge statisticians and economists face across the world. With the oil-rich countries holding huge reserves of oil, natural gas companies and other new oil companies mushrooming all over the world every year, it becomes an impossible task to analyze the entire oil market and decide on which company supersedes which one in that given year.
