Marilyn Radler
Senior Editor-Economics
Leena Koottungal
Survey Editor/News Writer
The world's largest oil and gas producers reported improved financial results in 2011 from a year earlier, according to Oil & Gas Journal's annual survey of the 100 leading companies based outside the US. Stronger oil prices than those in 2010 bolstered the earnings of most of the companies featured in the report.
The OGJ100 list of companies allows for comparison of the size and results of the entities for which financial results and production and reserves data are available. For many of the national oil companies in the report, no such information on assets, revenues, earnings, or capital expenditures is available. The 100 companies are grouped by region according to location of corporate headquarters, and only the leaders in oil production and reserves are ranked. All financial results are reported in US dollars.
Leading oil producers
Unchanged for 9 years, the world's top two oil producers in terms of volume are Saudi Aramco and National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC). During 2002, NIOC overtook Petroleos Mexicanos—now in the No. 3 spot—as the No. 2 oil producer.
BP PLC reported that its production of oil, gas, and natural gas liquids in 2011 was 10% lower than in 2010, due to higher turnaround and maintenance activity as well as the impact of the drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico. BP is now ranked No. 11 in production among the group of companies.
Statoil and Petroleum Development Oman LLC join the list of the top 20 oil producers in the OGJ100 group, replacing Eni SPA and Libya's National Oil Corp.
Oil output in 2011 by the current list of production leaders totaled 17.156 billion bbl. A year ago the top 20 producers reported collective oil output of 16.719 billion bbl (OGJ, Oct. 3, 2011, p. 44).
Oil reserves leaders
The list of the 20 leading oil reserves holders in the OGJ100 group is unchanged from a year ago. Aramco tops the list with 264.5 billion bbl, followed by Petroleos de Venezuela SA with 211.2 billion bbl in reported oil reserves, including heavy oil in the Orinoco belt.
Again this year, the top 9 oil reserves leaders are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, followed by Russia's OAO Rosneft and OAO Lukoil.
Collectively, the top 20 oil reserves holders reported a total of 1.19 trillion bbl in reserves. This compares to 1.14 trillion bbl reported in last year's OGJ100.
Financial results
There are 24 producers that list their headquarters in Canada in this year's OGJ100. Among these, Suncor Energy Inc. reported the largest yearend 2011 assets, followed by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Husky Energy Inc. Collectively, the group of Canada-based operators posted modest increases in revenues, earnings, and capital expenditures from a year earlier.
Reporting assets of $319.4 billion, Petroleo Brasileiro SA is the largest producer based in Latin America. The combined revenues and earnings of the Latin American companies also improved from 2010, as did the results of the producers with headquarters in Europe and Asia.