PetroChina
, the oil company largely owned by the Chinese government, has overtaken
ExxonMobil
of the
US
to regain its position as the world’s largest listed energy group by
market capitalisation.
It took less than a year for the Chinese group to
reclaim the top slot it lost during the financial crisis of 2008 when oil
prices collapsed and investors fled to the perceived safety of international
oil companies such as ExxonMobil and
ChevronTexaco
of the
US
and
Royal Dutch Shell
and
BP, both based in
Europe
.
Other
national oil companies
also largely made up the distance they
had lost to their larger international peers.
Brazil
’s
Petrobras
is the fourth-largest oil company and
Russia
’s
Rosneft
stands at number 13. Both saw their market capitalisation more than
double in 2009, according to data compiled by
PFC Energy, the Washington-based
industry consultancy. The annual ranking of the world’s 50 largest energy
groups will be published on Tuesday.
The study finds that national oil companies gained an
average 66 per cent in market value in 2009.
In comparison, the six biggest international oil
companies grew in market capitalisation less than 1 per cent.
The combined market value of the 50 largest energy
groups jumped 35 per cent to $3,900bn as oil prices made an even more dramatic
recovery, climbing back from the lows of about $30 a barrel they hit at the
start of 2009 to $80 by the end of the year.
The findings underscore the momentum of a nascent but
increasingly marked shift away from the western international oil companies
that have dominated the sector and towards their state-owned counterparts in
China
,
Brazil
and
Russia
.
PetroChina first took the top ranking in 2007 but lost
it the following year.
Robin West, chairman of PFC Energy, said the findings
showed a fundamental shift towards growing energy markets, such as
China
,
and the regions that can supply them, such as
Russia
and
Brazil
.
“For investors the shift is measured in trillions of
dollars,” he said. “This is a big deal.
“There is a lot of money involved here. An asset class
is changing. These new companies are becoming global blue chip companies.”
But Mr West warned that some of the national oil
companies were not held to the same standards as their western counterparts and
were still viewed as more speculative vehicles whose value rose and fell with
the oil price.
National oil companies often appeal to investors
because they have a number of important advantages over international oil
companies.
They either own or control much higher oil and gas
reserves, as is the case with Petrobras and Rosneft, or they have access to a
huge consumer market and benefit from the deep pockets and ambitions of their
governments, as is the case with PetroChina.
In contrast, companies such as ExxonMobil, Shell and
Total are struggling to increase their levels of production and find new
reserves.
Even if the ranking included
Exxon’s $31bn takeover of
XTO
, which has been announced but not completed, PFC concluded that
PetroChina would outrank the
US
group in market capitalisation.
The access to markets generally outweighs the better
technical and management expertise offered by the international oil companies,
analysts said.