China’s role as a major player in the oil and gas industry continues to be underscored by the huge impact which its local companies continue to make in the sector globally.
A Friday March 22 Oil Industry News Report lists two Chinese companies among the top three biggest oil and gas companies in the world last year, based on revenue growth. The two were separated by Royal Dutch Shell while Exxon Mobil was ranked fifth.
The Oil Industry News report ranks the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC) as the top industry performer last year, raking in US$426 billion in operating revenue, the equivalent of 22.09% year-over-year growth compared with 2017. The report says that the company’s refinery and distribution segment accounted for approximately 60% of revenue while its total domestic sales volume of refined oil products increased by 1.4% to 180.24 metric tonnes.
SINOPEC enjoys a huge share of the giant Chinese market and operates business segments that include oil and gas exploration and production, petroleum engineering, chemical marketing, petrochemical refining & refined products marketing, engineering and construction, and international trade.
The British-Dutch oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell is ranked second in the 2018 pecking order with an operating revenue of US$388.37 billion, representing a 27.26% increase over 2017. Royal-Dutch Shell’s integrated gas business, which includes liquid natural gas (LNG) marketing & trading, as well as gas-to-liquids projects grew by 25.34% to $43.764 billion and accounted for 11.27% of the total operating revenue. Its increased earnings was due primarily to what Oil and Gas News says were “the higher realised oil and gas prices during the year, despite the 2% reduction in its upstream production.”
State-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) took the third spot, reporting a 2018 operating revenue of US$346 billion, a 25% year-on-year growth over 2017. The company produced 1.1 billion barrels of oil and gas-equivalent in the first three quarters of 2018 and increased its marketable gas output by 4.8% to 2.66 trillion cubic feet during the same period. CNPC operates 26 refineries while its overseas exploration and production activities are spread across more than thirty countries in Africa, Central Asia, Russia, South America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
Ranked fourth in the 2018 performance pecking order, British multinational oil and gas company BP, registered a 24.37% year-on-year revenue growth in 2018, earning $298.75 billion. Revenues from its downstream business increased by 23.88% to $270.11 billion, whereas the upstream segment’s revenues witnessed a 30.92% growth to reach $27.83 billion. Crude oil sales contributed $65.27 billion of revenue, whereas oil products contributed $195.466 billion and natural gas, LNG, and natural gas liquids (NGLs) contributed $21.74 billion to the revenue.
The United States-based oil and gas powerhouse ExxonMobil is listed at fifth amongst the 2018 top performers in the sector with a reported US$290.2 billion in revenue last year, an increase of 18.76% over 2017. Oil and Gas News reports that ExxonMobil produced 2.26 million barrels per day of liquids and 9.4 billion cubic metres of natural gas a day in 2018.
The remaining oil and gas companies rounding out the global top ten performers in terms of revenue earnings last year are Total (French), Chevron (USA), Rosneft (Russia), Lukoil (Russia) and Phillips 66 (USA).
