Oil and Gas

Becoming Big Oil: How the 10 Largest Oil Companies Were Born

Published

8 years ago

November 30, 2015

Jeff Desjardins

Becoming Big Oil: How the 10 Largest Oil Companies Were Born

The size and scope of Big Oil is truly mind-boggling.

For example, Chinese government-owned Sinopec, the world’s largest oil company by 2014 revenues, employs 358,571 people and brought in a whopping $455 billion in revenue last year.

Royal Dutch Shell is no slouch, either. The world’s third largest oil company generated $422 billion in revenue in 2014 and is the U.S. market leader in gas stations with 25,000.

Collectively, the numbers from the world’s 10 biggest oil companies are even more impressive. Worldwide, they generated $3.26 trillion in revenue in 2014, which is more than the entire GDP of the United Kingdom. The combined daily oil production of these same companies is 40 million barrels of oil, enough to fill 2,543 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Big Oil has more behemoth companies than all other industries combined. Even with the recent decline in oil prices, half of Fortune’s 10 Largest Companies list is composed of oil conglomerates. The Swiss commodity giant Glencore, one of the “other” five companies on the list, also makes a significant portion of revenue from trading oil.

The question is: how did these companies get so big?

Today’s infographic, from drill rig supplier Rigsource, tries to answer this question. Looking at a century of mergers and acquisitions, it becomes clear that these companies were not always giants. They became their current size through various mergers and acquisitions that happened over the course of the last century, and it is these economies of scale that has allowed them to generate the kind of revenue they do today.

Revenue

Big Oil Profits Reached Record High Levels in 2022

This visual highlights the five big oil companies that doubled their individual profits and earned a cumulative profit of over $200 billion in 2022.

Creator Program

Published

1 month ago

April 26, 2023

Freny Fernandes

This visual highlights the five big oil companies that doubled their individual profits and earned a cumulative profit of over $200billion in 2022.

Big Oil Profits Reached Record High Levels in 2022

Last year was a great year for oil companies.

Global crude oil prices had already escalated as global economies began recovering, and demand increased after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shot these prices further up as fossil fuel trade fell under the microscope.

In this graphic, Vipul Sharma of Mastermind Investor uses accumulated earnings data from Energy Monitor to highlight the five companies that made a cumulative profit of over $200 billion in 2022.

The Five Big Oil Winners

Within the span of one year, the five Big Oil companies ⁠— ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, and TotalEnergies ⁠— more than doubled their profits.

Company	Profit 2021	Profit 2022
ExxonMobil	$23B	$59.1B
Shell	$19.3B	$39.9B
Chevron	$15.6B	$36.5B
TotalEnergies	$18.1B	$36.2B
BP	$12.8B	$27.7B

Securing a total profit of $59.2 billion, U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil recorded the highest total of the lot. In 2021, the company’s profits were $23 billion or less than half of 2022’s haul.

It was joined by Chevron, whose profits rose by over 134% to $36.5 billion, and Shell, whose profit of $39.9 billion was the highest in the company’s 115-year history.

Where Will This Money Go?

One of the main focuses of the COP27 conference in Egypt last year was the global attempt to phase down fossil fuels and move to clean energy.

So far, these massive profits have largely gone to stock buybacks and reinvesting in shareholders. With lower oil prices so far in 2023, how will Big Oil react and spend moving forward?