Energy Intelligence Ranks World’s 50 Top Oil Companies in Benchmark Survey ; Oil firms collectively weather a volatile year to keep rankings stable

Petroleum Intelligence Weekly this week published its annual ranking of the world’s 50 largest oil companies, a long-established benchmark survey recognized industry-wide as the leading source of comparative performance assessments on all the world’s oil companies. The main trend in the latest survey is that despite a tumultuous 2008 that saw dramatic swings in oil and gas prices and in company profits, PIW’s Top 50 rankings were steady with the previous year as these large, diversified firms adopted similar responses to the crisis.

The PIW Top 50 rankings are based on six operational criteria that allow the comparison of private sector and state-owned oil companies. This year’s rankings are based on operational data for 2008, the most recent period data available for such a wide group of firms.

As a group, the top 50 companies saw the contribution of natural gas to their production and reserves portfolios rise – a trend that is expected to continue as the more environmentally palatable fuel makes further gains in the power generation and transportation sectors. Private and state firms alike have upped their natural gas positions across the globe, be it in conventional gas, shale, coalbed methane or LNG.

Other key findings from the PIW Top 50:

• Total was the only Top 10 firm to change positions, moving up a slot to tie Chevron at No.9.
• Russian independent gas producer Novatek returned to the Top 50, and UK-Russian joint venture TNK-BP moved up six slots to take No. 37 on meaningful production and reserves growth.

Source: Business Wire