State-Owned Companies Of OGJ100 Control Big Share Of World's Oil
Robert J. BeckState-owned companies in major oil-producing countries dominate the OGJ100 list of the world's largest oil companies based outside the U.S.
Associate Managing Editor-Economics
Marilyn Radler
Survey Editor
Because many state companies report only production and reserves information, the OGJ100 cannot be ranked by assets. The companies are grouped by region.
The leading nongovernment company in both reserves and production is Royal Dutch/Shell. It ranks 6th in the world in liquids production and 11th in liquids reserves. British Petroleum is the next largest nongovernment company, ranking 12th in liquids production and 16th in liquids reserves. Elf Aquitaine of France ranked 17th in liquids production.
There was one new company on the list of the top 20 producers: Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. moved up to 13th.
In 1996 the top 29 non-U.S. companies produced an average of 39.9 million b/d of crude. That was 62.9% of total world crude and condensate production in 1996.
There were no replacements of companies in the top 20 list for crude oil reserves, although the order changed due to new reserves estimates.
Sidanco of Russia, added to the OGJ100 table last year, reported reserves of 19.1 billion in 1995 but did not reply for 1996. Its reserves total, based on Russia's reserve evaluation method, includes volumes other than what would be classified as proved under other methods. For that reason, Sidanco was not included in the top 20 list for reserves.
Total crude reserves for the top 20 OGJ100 companies was 887.3 billion bbl in 1996, up from 873.2 billion bbl in 1995. Based on the latest OGJ estimates of worldwide reserves, the top 20 companies now control 87.1% of total world crude oil reserves, compared with 86.7% in 1995.
The crude oil reserves-to-production ratio for the top 20 companies was 61 years last year, 63.9 years in 1995, 64.6 years in 1994, and 65.7 years in 1993.
Several major international oil companies with headquarters in the U.S. would appear in top 20 categories of the OGJ100 if they were not already included in the OGJ200. 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 16th.
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