State-Owned Companies Top Reserves Ranking Outside U.S.

Sept. 2, 1996

OGJ100: Reserve and Production Leaders [41103 bytes] State-owned oil concerns continue to dominate the OGJ100 list of the world's biggest oil and gas companies outside the U.S. Because many state-owned companies report only production and reserves information and not financial data, they cannot be ranked by assets or revenues. They are instead listed by region based on the location of corporate headquarters.

OGJ100: Reserve and Production Leaders [41103 bytes]

State-owned oil concerns continue to dominate the OGJ100 list of the world's biggest oil and gas companies outside the U.S.

Because many state-owned companies report only production and reserves information and not financial data, they cannot be ranked by assets or revenues. They are instead listed by region based on the location of corporate headquarters.

The leading nongovernment company in both reserves and production is Royal Dutch/Shell: No. 6 in liquids production and No. 14 in liquids reserves. British Petroleum is the next largest nongovernment company, ranking 12th in liquids production and 18th in liquids reserves.

Elf Aquitaine of France ranked 14th in liquids production, Total of France 19th in the same category.

There was one new company on the list of the top 20 producers: Sonangol of Angola moved up to 20th. In 1995 the top 20 companies outside of the U.S. had crude production averaging 37.4 million b/d, 61% of the world's total.

Sonangol also joined the top 20 OGJ100 ranking of reserves holders, taking position No. 14. It has reserves of 5.4 billion bbl.

Sidanco-Far East Oil Company of Russia joined the OGJ100 list for the first time this year. Because its reported reserves of 19.1 billion bbl must include unproved volumes, it was excluded from the top 20 list.

Total crude reserves for the top 20 was 873.2 billion bbl. This is up from 868.5 billion bbl in last year's group.

Based on the latest OGJ estimates, the OGJ100 top 20 companies represent 86.7% of total world crude oil reserves.

The crude oil reserves-to-production ratio for the top 20 was 63.9 years in 1995 compared to 64.6 years in 1994 and 65.7 years in 1993.

Several major U.S. companies would rank in the OGJ100 top 20. Exxon would rank 10th in worldwide liquids production and 13th in worldwide liquids reserves. Chevron would rank 14th in production and 19th in reserves.

Other U.S. companies that would make the list of top oil producers in the world are Mobil 15th, and Texaco 17th.