ExxonMobil ranks first among the United States' top ten oil and gas producing companies based on market capitalization. As of June 18, 2025, the Texas-based oil supermajor had a market cap of ****** billion U.S. dollars. ExxonMobil can not only trace its roots back to the early years of commercial oil production, it has also become one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. It is active in all areas of the supply chain, from hydrocarbon extraction to retailing of gasoline. What is market cap? As opposed to sales or assets, market capitalization is a metric used to determine a company’s size by the worth of their outstanding shares on the stock market. ExxonMobil often ranks as the leading oil and gas company based on market cap worldwide. However, its net income is often significantly lower than that of state-owned entities such as Saudi Aramco. The differing ratios exemplify how market cap is not a hard figure like net profits, but inflates and fluctuates according to the perceived value of a company, influenced by less quantifiable factors. The role of oil and gas in the world economy The oil and gas industry is involved in exploration, extraction, refining, transport, and marketing of hydrocarbons. Many industries are extremely dependent on oil and gas products, mostly in the form of fuels or raw materials for chemical products. The oil and gas industry is one of the largest worldwide, and it would follow that companies involved within the industry are among the top companies worldwide by revenue.

Saudi Aramco is by far the world's largest oil company based on daily liquids production. In its 2024 fiscal year, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company reported a crude oil and associated liquids output of some **** million barrels per day. This was more than three times the amount extracted by its closest competitor. State-owned enterprises by far the largest producers The largest oil producers are state-controlled companies like Saudi Aramco and Brazil's Petrobras. Compared to the more than *** million barrels of liquids extracted by Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil, as the largest private-owned oil company has a daily production of some ***** million barrels. Meanwhile, total global oil production averages more than ** million barrels per day. The size of the oil and gas sector The oil and gas industry is one of the largest industries worldwide. This sector is involved in exploration, extraction, refining, transportation, and marketing of hydrocarbon-based commodities. Many industries are extremely dependent on oil and gas products, mostly in the form of energy fuels or raw materials for chemical products. This is also why oil and gas companies are among the world’s top companies by revenue.

ExxonMobil is the largest United States-based oil and gas producing company. As of December 2024, ExxonMobil's revenues amounted to ****** billion U.S. dollars. ExxonMobil’s revenue was significantly higher than its competitors, earning nearly *** billion U.S. dollars more than Chevron, which ranked second that same year. ExxonMobil’s main operations and locations Based in Irving, Texas, ExxonMobil is consistently ranked as one of the top oil and gas companies worldwide based on revenue. The company has early origins in John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company from the 1880s but became the entity it is today when two major oil companies, Exxon and Mobil, merged in 1999. The company is one of the leading global oil refiners, with refineries in 21 countries. The majority of ExxonMobil's refining capacity is in North America and Europe. Impact of 2022 rise in oil prices ExxonMobil's revenue has seen a stark rise this decade. While a 2020 slump followed impacts of the pandemic on economic activity and outlooks, revenues have more than doubled since then. As a result of rising oil prices, ExxonMobil regained its position among the largest ten companies by revenue worldwide along with other major oil producers and refiners.

Sinopec (China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation) is the leading global oil and gas company by revenues generated. In the 12-month period leading up to July 2024, the Chinese state-owned enterprise generated ************** U.S. dollars in revenues. State-owned enterprises are largest producers State-owned businesses are among the largest within the oil and gas industry. Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco is the leading oil company worldwide based on daily oil production, at over ********** barrels per day. This is significantly more than the daily output of ExxonMobil. At *********** barrels of crude oil per day, it is the largest producer among public companies not majority owned by any state. The United States-based oil and gas giant ExxonMobil generated ************** U.S. dollars in revenues in the 12 months leading up to July 2024, coming in third in this list. Diversification of oil & gas portfolios Due to growing investor pressure and judicial court rulings, some oil and gas companies have been incentivized to increase the share of non-fossil fuel assets in their portfolio. Their efforts have been supported by an increasing number of investment funds and asset managers, with more diverse companies also often ranking higher in terms of brand value. Many European oil majors have already begun looking for clean energy ventures where their expertise may help them gain footing fast, such as offshore wind and blue hydrogen. This is also reflected in a growing share of low-carbon investments in overall capex.

As of March 2023, Eneos Holdings, Inc. topped the ranking of the leading companies in the petroleum industry in Japan, with total assets worth over ten trillion Japanese yen. The Japanese petroleum and metals company, formerly named JXTG Holdings, Inc., was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Tokyo. Eneos Holdings, Inc. The energy segment accounted for Eneos' largest operating income, while oil and natural gas exploitation and production constituted the smallest segment. In 2020, the company announced that it intended to further expand its oil and natural gas segment and aimed to improve oil field productivity to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The company is mostly involved in projects in resource-rich countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Oil industry in Japan In recent years, petroleum was the energy source with the highest share of energy consumption in Japan. Since the archipelago lacks domestic fossil fuels, it is heavily dependent on imports. Most crude oil imports to Japan came from Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Nevertheless, the oil consumption in Japan has decreased significantly since 1995. It only shortly increased after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima in 2011, when nuclear energy was replaced by fossil fuels. In more recent years, figures continue to indicate a decline in the oil consumption as the country aims to diversify its energy mix to be less dependent on fossil fuel imports and to increase Japan's self-sufficiency rate of primary energy.

ExxonMobil has the highest market capitalization of any oil and gas producer worldwide. As of June 18, 2024, the United States-based company had a market cap of ****** billion U.S. dollars. Big Oil's place among the ten leading oil and gas companies Of the five largest companies in this ranking, three were considered Big Oil companies. Meanwhile, the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, which operates the world's largest oil refinery complex and is also involved in retail and telecommunications, ranked fourth, with a market cap of more than *** billion U.S. dollars. KPI's of top oil & gas companies While there has been little change in which companies are counted among the largest within their industry, their ranking varies depending on the metric used. Although ExxonMobil has often ranked first in terms of market capitalization, state-owned enterprises such as China's Sinopec are more likely to be found on top of a list of leading oil and gas companies worldwide based on revenue. State-owned enterprises such as Gazprom and PetroChina are furthermore the leading oil and gas companies worldwide based on employment. In 2023 and 2024, their respective workforce consisted of around ******* employees.

National oil corporation Petróleos Mexicanos – commonly known as Pemex – is by far the leading company in the Mexican oil and gas sector based on revenue. In 2023, Pemex generated more than 1.7 trillion Mexican pesos in net sales. The fuels division of Mexican multinational FEMSA ranked second that year, with some 58 billion pesos worth of revenue. While in 2021 a total of eight companies in the oil and gas sector made it to the top 500 list of Mexican companies based on revenue, only three were featured in 2023.

Apart from TotalEnergies, the net income of major oil and gas companies in the first quarter of 2025 increased across the board. All companies were able to turn a profit this quarter despite economic uncertainty and lower than expected crude prices. Saudi Aramco continues to dominate the sector, with net earnings exceeding ** billion U.S. dollars. This performance underscores the continued financial strength of state-owned oil enterprises in a volatile global energy market. State-owned giants lead production and profits Saudi Aramco's financial dominance is rooted in its unparalleled production output. The company extracts approximately **** million barrels of crude oil and associated liquids per day, more than * times that of its closest competitor. This vast output dwarfs that of private companies like ExxonMobil, which produces around *** million barrels daily. The scale of state-controlled oil companies extends beyond production to reserves as well, with Saudi Aramco holding nearly *** billion barrels of proved hydrocarbon reserves in 2023, over ** times ExxonMobil's reported reserves. Shifting strategies in a changing industry As the oil and gas sector faces pressure to adapt to climate concerns, companies are diversifying their portfolios. Shell has maintained the highest brand value among oil and gas companies, estimated at **** billion U.S. dollars in 2024, partly due to its increased focus on low-carbon investments. TotalEnergies is leading the supermajors in capital expenditure on renewables and other low-carbon sources, spending *** billion U.S. dollars in 2023. In contrast, ExxonMobil allocated just **** billion U.S. dollars to such initiatives, while Saudi Aramco's low-carbon investments remain limited to blue ammonia production and solar project investments.

In 2023, Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras was the leading oil and gas company in Latin America, based on annual sales, with almost 102.4 billion U.S. dollars worth of revenue that year. Mexico's Pemex closely followed, with 101.6 billion U.S. dollars of sales revenue that year.

***** was the leading oil and gas company in the United Kingdom (UK) as of October 15, 2024, with a market capitalization amounting to over *** billion U.S. dollars. ** followed as the second-largest oil and gas company in the country, with a market cap of approximately ***** billion U.S. dollars.

Oil company ConocoPhillips had oil reserves totaling 3.4 billion barrels in the United States in 2023. Therefore, ConocoPhillips was ranked first among the leading U.S. oil companies based on proved oil reserves. By comparison, Occidental Petroleum Corporation ranked fifth, with proved oil reserves amounting to 2.11 billion barrels that year.

Enbridge Incorporated is the largest oil and gas company based in Canada. In the 12-month period leading up to June 2025, it had generated a revenue of 32.86 billion U.S. dollars. This was over 10 percent more than the amount generated by Cenovus Energy. Cenovus Energy is based in Alberta and parent company to another large hydrocarbon producer - Husky Energy.

A public joint stock company (PJSC) Rosneft was the leading oil producer in the Russia in 2022 with an output of nearly 179 million metric tons. The second-largest company in the industry was Lukoil, also a PJSC, whose oil production volume stood at 81 million metric tons. Surgutneftegas, an open joint-stock company (OJSC), ranked third with an output of approximately 60 million metric tons. Key facts about Rosneft With a revenue of nearly 8.8 trillion Russian rubles, Rosneft is one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. Founded in 1993, Rosneft soon became one of the highest valued brands in the Russian economy. In 2006, the company went public, trading at the London Stock Exchange. Rosneft employed approximately 335 thousand people in 2019, placing it on the list of companies with the highest employee numbers worldwide. The global success and stability made Rosneft one of the most valuable brands in Russia. Leading oil producers worldwide Saudi Aramco was the global leader in oil production, which was measured at 13.6 thousand barrels daily in 2022. Following the United States, Saudi Arabia was the second-largest oil producing country in that year. Its daily output was recorded at over 12.1 million barrels, which was above the figure for Russia.

PetroChina's Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions totaled 171 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO₂e) in 2023. This was more than double the GHG emissions produced by Saudi Aramco that year. Nevertheless, Saudi Aramco has the highest cumulative emissions among state-owned companies worldwide, having produced almost 70 GtCO₂e as of 2022.Combined, these 10 oil majors emitted more than 700 MtCO₂e from their own operations and energy they used in 2023. However, oil companies are responsible for far higher emissions when indirect Scope 3 emissions are taken into account. Scope 3 emissions are those that occur in sources not owned or controlled by a company, but are associated with a company's supply chain or from customers' use of their products, such as for heating buildings and transportation.

China's oil and gas enterprise Sinopec Group is the largest state-owned oil company in the world. In 2019, Sinopec generated approximately 443 billion U.S. dollars in revenues. Ranking second was another Chinese enterprise, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Sinopec is also the leading oil and gas company by revenue including publicly traded enterprises.

In 2023, Petrobras was the leading company in the oil and gas sector in Brazil, with a revenue of nearly 512 billion Brazilian reals. Raízen followed in second, but with a large margin, generating approximately 220 billion reals in revenues. A tale of one company Upon its establishment in 1953, Petrobras, the state-owned Brazilian multinational corporation, was given legal monopoly over oil exploration in the country. More than two decades after this monopoly was officially put to an end, however, the company’s firm grip on the sector can still be seen. In 2023, Petrobras’ crude oil production reached nearly 1.1 billion barrels, roughly 34 times more than its nearest contender Equinor Brasil. In addition, that same year, the oil giant accounted for essentially all the refinery capacity in the country, with an over 80 percent share. The oil refinery construction process is a multibillion-dollar operation spanning several years, which poses a high barrier of entry for potential competitors. Fierce competition for distribution While no other companies have been able to compete in the Brazilian oil exploration and refining sectors, when it comes to fuel distribution the national corporation is slightly less hegemonic. Although Petrobras – through its former subsidiary Vibra Energia (BR Distribuidora) – remains the leading fuel distributor in Brazil in nearly every sector it operates in, competition has slowly tightened over the years. In the diesel fuel and gasoline segments, its two closest rivals – Raízen, the licensee of Royal Dutch Shell in Brazil, and Ipiranga, a part of the Ultrapar group – each hold around one fifth of the market. In addition, the overall market share of smaller players has continually increased in the second half of the past decade.

Saudi Aramco reported a cash flow from operations upward of 136 billion U.S. dollars for 2024. This was far more than the amount generated by its non-state-owned competitors. However, its cash at the end of the year more closely resembled that of other major oil companies, such as Shell and BP.

Ecopetrol S.A. is by far the largest crude oil extracting company in Colombia, having generated an operational revenue of nearly 129.5 trillion Colombian pesos in 2023. This was followed by Verano Energy AG Sucursal Colombia, with a revenue of around 5.4 trillion pesos.

Brazilian Petrobras, short for Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., was the leading state-owned oil corporation in Latin America in 2020, with a net revenue of more than 53 billion U.S. dollars. Petróleos Mexicanos – most commonly known as Pemex – ranked second, with a sales revenue amounting to approximately 44.7 billion dollars.

Similar origins, different paths

Nationalism has been a foundational element in the two leading state-owned oil corporations' early development, which were granted exclusive rights in the exploration of crude oil resources in their respective countries. While the monopoly of Petrobras legally ended in 1997, Pemex’s endured until as recent as the mid-2010s. Nevertheless, the companies’ performances have taken very different paths. Since the discovery of deep offshore reserves, Petrobras’ crude oil production has soared in the past decade, averaging around 2.1 million barrels per day in recent years. Meanwhile, Pemex has been facing a production crisis – its crude oil production dropped by nearly 35 percent between 2010 and 2020, dipping below 1.7 million barrels per day.

The oil sector takes a hit

With crude oil prices plummeting worldwide amidst the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the earnings of oil corporations across the globe suffered a massive hit. Petrobras' revenue dropped by nearly 30 percent in 2020, despite managing to increase its oil production that year. The revenues of Pemex and Ecopetrol were similarly impacted. Still, as some of the largest global players in the oil sector &#8211 including Shell and ExxonMobil &#8211 recorded historic net losses, Petrobras stood out as the world's most profitable oil company in 2020.

Gazprom is expected to further unlock 21.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent through new developments between 2020 and 2024, making it the leading oil and gas producer in the world by expansion potential. This is in spite of many oil supermajors looking to scale back on production.