(MENAFN - Arab News) Saudi Aramco was ranked as the largest oil company in the world by Forbes magazine in its latest edition.
The list - of the world's 25 largest oil companies - was made public yesterday by one of the world's most reputable business magazines.
"The ranking is based on the combined volumes of oil and natural gas that these companies produce each day," explained Forbes staffer Christopher Helman.
The Saudi oil giant topped the rating based on daily oil- and gas-production volumes. "Saudi Aramco is by far the biggest energy company in the world, generating more than 1 billion a day in revenues," said the magazine.
Forbes presented an image of the Shaybah mega project, stating that it sits on more than 15 billion barrels of oil in the Rub Al-Khali. It also referred to Saudi Aramco's biggest oilfield, Ghawar, which can produce 5 million bpd.
A Riyadh-based oil industry analyst said the magazine was only stating the obvious. "Yes, there is no doubt that Saudi Aramco is the world's No. 1 oil company, and the magazine is only confirming this fact," he said.
"This is a reason for cheer for everyone in Saudi Arabia. Under President and CEO Khalid A. Al-Falih, Saudi Aramco is undergoing a corporate
transformation. "While upstream remains the company's biggest strength, it is rapidly expanding its downstream portfolio, too," the analyst said.
"The slew of ventures and projects, such as Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and Sadara, to name just two, indicate that the company will only get bigger and bigger in the coming years," said the analyst.
At No. 2 on the Forbes list was Russia's Gazprom. National Iranian Oil Co. was ranked third, ExxonMobil fourth and PetroChina fifth.
Also on the list were BP (6), Royal Dutch Shell (7), Chevron (9), Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (10), Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (11), Total (13), Petrobras (14), Qatar Petroleum (17), ConocoPhillips (21), Sinopec (23) and Malaysia's Petronas (25).
