Forbes magazine recently published a report entitled "The World's Biggest Oil And Gas Companies - 2015". Many individuals think ExxonMobil is number 1; it isn't, in fact it's number 4. The largest oil company in the world is Saudi Aramco (12 million boepd*), followed by Russia's Gazprom (8.3 million boepd), and National Iranian Oil Company (6 million boepd), then ExxonMobil (4.7 million boepd).
*boepd, or BOEPD, is defined as Barrels of Oil or the energy Equivalent in natural gas
Russia's Rosneft follows in the 5th spot, with PetroChina, British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, Petroleos Mexicanos and Kuwait Petroleum, in that order, rounding out the top 10.
Among the biggest oil companies, the vast majority of volume growth has come from state-controlled entities.
For each oil company listed, the "Percent liquids" is shown. Volumes represent working interest production before royalties, in barrels of oil and natural gas equivalents. Data is from Wood Mackenzie, a global energy, metals and mining research and consultancy firm based in Edinburgh Scotland.
Ten years ago, the top 21 producers listed by Forbes were pumping 64.1 million BOE per day. Today they are pumping a collective 80.4 million boepd, an increase of 25%. The figures represent each companys working interest volumes before royalty payments. All told, these companies account for roughly half the worlds crude oil production. Ironically, in 2004 the average price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate was $41.50.
