This news is classified in: Traditional Energy Oil and Gas
Jun 7, 2018
Royal Dutch Shell took the top spot among oil and gas companies on the Forbes Global 2000's list of the biggest and most powerful public companies, surpassing last year's leader Exxon Mobil Corp.
The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas giant ranked 11th among all companies on the list, up from 20th the previous year, mostly because of higher sales due to lofty commodity prices. Irving, Texas-based Exxon came in at 13th, the same as last year.
The Forbes Global 2000 is determined by a composite score of equally weighted measures of revenue, profits, assets and market value.
San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron Corp. was the third-biggest oil and gas company on the list with a 21st ranking compared with 359th the previous year, which it ended $431 million in the red because of lower commodity prices, among other things.
France's Total SA was the fourth-ranked oil and gas company on the list, followed by China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., known as Sinopec, and PetroChina Co. Ltd.
BP plc, Gazprom and Rosneft of Russia and India's Reliance Industries Ltd. rounded out the top 10.
Oil and gas companies' financial results improved considerably over the last year on the back of higher oil prices, with West Texas Intermediate crude averaging $51 per barrel in 2017, up $7 per barrel over the previous year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
