Platts Ranks Top 250 Global Energy Companies

The top company in 2013, as it has been for nine consecutive years, is Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), followed by Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-A), Russia’s OAO Gazprom, and Norway’s Statoil ASA (NYSE: STO).

Chevron and Shell switched places from their 2012 finishes, but BP plc (NYSE: BP) the fourth place finisher last year dropped to eleventh and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), ranked eighth in 2012, fell to thirteenth. PetroChina Co. Ltd. (NYSE: PTR) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (NYSE: SNP), known as Sinopec, both made the top ten in 2013, with PetroChina moving up from ninth to eighth, and Sinopec moving up from twelfth to tenth.

Platts considered four key metrics in compiling its list: assets, revenues, profits, and return on invested capital. The firm also ranked companies on the basis of compound growth rate. Data for U.S. companies is based on the company’s most recent SEC form 10-K.

Some interesting facts from the list:

• The largest coal U.S. coal company on the list is CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNX) ranked at 148th. The only other U.S. coal miner to make the list was Peabody Energy Co. (NYSE: BTU), at 250th.
• Three of the top five refiners were U.S. firms: Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) topped the list, while Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) ranked third and Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) ranked fourth.
• China’s Cnooc Ltd. (NYSE: CEO) was the top independent oil & gas exploration & production firm, followed by ConocoPhillips. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) was the other U.S. company to make the top five.
• The fastest growing company is Cairn India Ltd., with a compound growth rate of 121%. HollyFrontier Corp. (NYSE: HFC) was the fastest growing U.S. firm with a CGR of 60.8%, ranked sixth followed by Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR) with a CGR of 56.8% in seventh place.

Some national energy companies are not included for a variety of reasons, For example, there are no rankings for Saudi Aramco or Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PdVSA).