Friday, December 17, 2010

Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings 2010

Platts, November 2, 2010
2010 marks the ninth year Platts has produced the Top 250 Energy Companies list. The report measures financial performance by examining each company’s assets, revenue, profits and return on invested capital. The Rankings call attention to the continued leadership of the international oil companies, the rapid advance of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and the resurgence of the global power sector. Here are some of the highlights [my order of selected issues, D.R.] of the Platts report:
  • Top Ten - Reigning supreme at the top of the rankings for the sixth consecutive year is US major ExxonMobil. ... While ExxonMobil’s European gas production declined, the coming on stream of its giant LNG production facilities in Qatar have helped it retain a strong grip on European markets. Second in the running is the now troubled UK major BP, which improved its position from fourth in the rankings in 2008. ... Chevron Corporation and Royal Dutch Shell plc each saw their profits decline more than 50 percent which resulted in a drop in the rankings to ninth and tenth place from second and third, respectively. France's Total SA remained at fifth place. While the top ten rankings remain the preserve of the integrated oil and gas (IOG) companies, one intruder is evident: German electric utility E.ON AG moved from 45th in last year’s rankings to 6th this year, the only non-IOG company in the top ten, although it is a sizeable gas producer. ... 
  • Asia on the Ascendant - It is clear that Asia as a whole has substantially improved its position in the global energy firmament over the course of 2009. Of the top ten Asian companies regionally, nine improved their global ranking; of the top 20, 15 improved their global position; while if new entrants are included, out of the top 50 Asian companies, as many as 40 of the top 50 gained a higher global ranking this year to the detriment of other regions. There are now 68 Asian companies in the Platts top 250, compared with 55 last year. The Asian top ten remains dominated by Chinese and Indian companies. PetroChina Co Ltd retains the top spot, while the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp comes in second, ousting CNOOC Ltd, which falls to sixth place. India’s Reliance Industries Ltd moved from fourth to third, while India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd [ONGC] rises from fifth to fourth. ... ONGC has been ranked 18th in the top 250 rankings. This ranking of ONGC has taken it to eight steps higher as against its 26th rank in the same list last year in 2009. This is the highest ever ranking of ONGC in the list of Platts Top 250 Global Energy Companies, ahead of global leaders like Conoco Phillips, Statoil, CNOOC, BG and others. ...  
  • BRICs to the Fore - Within the global top 20, eleven companies are from the BRICs -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- compared with just six the year before. Moreover, while BRICs still account for four of the top ten, all are rising; Russia’s Gazprom jumped to third place from eighth the year before and was also ranked as the world’s most profitable listed energy company. Brazil’s Petrobras claimed fourth place from sixth in the previous year’s global ranking. [My emphasis -- D.R., and please read below 2009 rankings]. PetroChina rose to seventh from ninth place and the China Petroleum and Chemical Corp jumped from 23rd place to eighth in the global rankings this year. [Read full report] 
(Platts 2010 rankings recognize the 2009 financial performance of publicly-held energy companies. For Platts 2009 rankings, which are based on financial reports from 2008, please see Platts Insight, November 2009, pp. 50-54---2009 Platts Top 250 Global Energy Companies or, alternatively, here -- D.R.)

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