In the past year ExxonMobil, the US energy group, has toppled General Electric from its spot as the world’s largest company by market capitalisation. But ask Rex Tillerson, the $375bn Texas-based company’s chief executive, whether he believes Exxon is big, and you are likely to get a surprising response.
By most measures that matter, Exxon and other “supermajors” are dwarfed by national energy companies, such as Saudi Arabia’s Aramco and Russia’s Gazprom. In oil reserves ExxonMobil ranks 13th with 11.2bn barrels, not even 5 per cent of that held by the number one. In natural gas, ExxonMobil’s 66,907bn cu ft of reserves also puts it in 13th place, with Russia’s Gazprom, the leader, clocking in with more than 1,000,000bn cu ft.
