Big Oil is distinct from the term Oil Majors, which encapsulates the largest oil companies by tanker chartering. State-owned counterparts to Big Oil are oil and gas producing heavyweights such as OPEC’s Saudi Aramco and Gazprom, and China’s Sinopec Group.
Big Oil generated a combined revenue of over 800 billion U.S. dollars in the 2020 fiscal year, with Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Royal Dutch Shell spearheading the group. This was despite Shell’s revenue declining by nearly 50 percent between 2019 and 2020. Chinese competitors Sinopec and PetroChina led the ranking of largest oil and gas companies by revenue. Shell also holds the greatest assets of any Big Oil company. In 2019, Shell’s total assets amounted to 379 billion U.S. dollars. By comparison, Total’s assets had reached 266 billion U.S. dollars.
Although having seen lower revenues than Shell, ExxonMobil was the most valuable supermajor in the world in 2020. As of June that year, the U.S. company had a market capitalization of 231 billion U.S. dollars. Of the five most valuable oil and gas companies, four were part of Big Oil. In 2020, ExxonMobil's liquids production stood at 2.3 million barrels per day. Fellow U.S.-based company Chevron had a daily liquids production volume of roughly 1.8 million barrels. Of this, 790,000 barrels were pumped from oilfields in the company’s home market, an increase of over 50 percent since 2015.
Across the Atlantic, United Kingdom-based BP has also ramped up its oil and gas supply in recent years. In 2020, BP’s natural gas production reached 7.9 billion cubic feet per day, with the company also holding reserves of over 42.5 trillion cubic feet. The company’s continental competitor.
Big Oil generated a combined revenue of over 800 billion U.S. dollars in the 2020 fiscal year, with Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Royal Dutch Shell spearheading the group. This was despite Shell’s revenue declining by nearly 50 percent between 2019 and 2020. Chinese competitors Sinopec and PetroChina led the ranking of largest oil and gas companies by revenue. Shell also holds the greatest assets of any Big Oil company. In 2019, Shell’s total assets amounted to 379 billion U.S. dollars. By comparison, Total’s assets had reached 266 billion U.S. dollars.
Although having seen lower revenues than Shell, ExxonMobil was the most valuable supermajor in the world in 2020. As of June that year, the U.S. company had a market capitalization of 231 billion U.S. dollars. Of the five most valuable oil and gas companies, four were part of Big Oil. In 2020, ExxonMobil's liquids production stood at 2.3 million barrels per day. Fellow U.S.-based company Chevron had a daily liquids production volume of roughly 1.8 million barrels. Of this, 790,000 barrels were pumped from oilfields in the company’s home market, an increase of over 50 percent since 2015.
Across the Atlantic, United Kingdom-based BP has also ramped up its oil and gas supply in recent years. In 2020, BP’s natural gas production reached 7.9 billion cubic feet per day, with the company also holding reserves of over 42.5 trillion cubic feet. The company’s continental competitor.
