Russia's Gazprom snagged the number 1 spot in the 2017 S&P Global Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings, ending U.S. oil and gas giant ExxonMobil's 12-year reign at the top of the list
Germany's E.ON climbed 112 places to 2nd place from 114th. India's Reliance Industries rised to 3rd place from last year's 8th. British utility Centrica is now 15th, up from 156th. Japan's JXTG Holdings landed just outside the top 25, at 26th, an advance of more than 100 ranks. Brazil's Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras, known as Eletrobras, made the lead 50, at 47th, up from 193rd. And Houston-based CenterPoint Energy surged to 105 from the prior year's rank of 220.
Energy entities of the Asia-Pacific make a strong showing in the 2017 Rankings, holding 88 of the 250 slots. Of the top 5 globally ranked companies, 3 are from Asia Pacific Rim (#3 Reliance Industries Ltd.; #4 Korea Electric Power Corp.; #5 China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.). The two leading revenue-generating companies are from Asia Pacific (China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and PetroChina Co. Ltd.), ahead of Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil and BP.
The annual Top 250, published by S&P Global Platts, ranks companies based on financial performance using four key metrics: asset worth, revenues, profits, and return on invested capital. All companies on the list have assets greater than $5.5 billion.
A leading analyst of the National Energy Security Fund, a lecturer at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Igor Yushkov, speaking with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, said that Gazprom managed to top the rating due to falling gas prices.
In particular, he pointed out that at the moment, ExxonMobil and other energy companies are not doing very well. "They are still in a rather crisis situation due to the fall in oil prices of 2014-2015. But Gazprom did the opposite, it increased deliveries in 2016-2017, thereby breaking historical records in exports," Igor Yushkov explained.
At the same time, he suggested that next year the company will lose its top position in the rating, as it makes quite large investment, which will pay off for a long time. "These are the Power of Siberia, the Nord Stream-2, the Turkish Stream gas pipeline projects. These investments will be paid off only over a long period," the leading analyst of the National Energy Security Fund concluded.
The director of the Center for Studies of World Energy Markets at the RAS Institute of Energy Research, Vyacheslav Kulagin, noted that Gazprom topped the energy rating due to its profit. "This is explained by the current economic situation in the world and the way the portfolio of assets and the business portfolio of companies was formed. In the current conjuncture of the world market it turned out that the diversification of Gazprom's business portfolios turned out to be more interesting and making it possible to extract more profit than other companies. Gazprom works not only in the gas sector, but also in other segments," he said.
Gazprom may have the biggest profit the next year as well. "The fact that gas will be in demand in the next century is unquestionable, which means that Gazprom will also be in demand," Vyacheslav Kulagin stressed.
