India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has beaten Chinese rival Cnooc to become Asia's top oil and gas exploration and production company.
Under the stewardship of R S Sharma, ONGC climbed three places to take the top slot in the 2010 rankings released by Platts, one of the most respected global provider of energy and metals information, yesterday evening.
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) this year slipped to number 2 slot.
In the overall Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings, that rated world's leading oil and gas, power and coal firms, ONGC claimed to 18th slot from 26th position in 2009 rankings.
With revenues of $22 billion, ONGC reported a profit of $4.24 billion in 2009-10 fiscal, which forms the basis for the Platts rankings. It had assets worth $33.37 billion.
Under Sharma, ONGC has been able to arrest decline in output from its ageing fields through innovative use of technology and has set the floor for reversing the declining trend of the past by fast-track development of new and marginal fields.
Sharma will retire as Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC on January 31, 2011, but the initiatives taken under him will see the company's oil production rise to 28 million tons in 2013-14 from current currently over 25 million tons. Natural gas production is slated to rise to over 100 million standard cubic meters per day by 2014-15 from current 58.86 mmscmd.
Platts also ranked ONGC as the fastest growth company in Asia in the E&P sector.
The global list headed by ExxonMobil Corp of the US, had billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries at the 13th position, Platts said.
Reliance had assets of $55.94 billion and revenues of $43.63 billion. It had a profit of $5.24 billion.
Embattled British energy giant BP Plc was placed second ahead of Gazprom OAO of Russia, Petrobras Brasileiro of Brazil, Total SA of France E.On AG of Germany, Petrochina Co, China Petroleum, Chevron Corp of US and Royal Dutch Shell.
Platts ranked Reliance Industries as the top oil refining and marketing company in Asia while state-owned GAIL India was ranked No.1 company among gas utilities. State-owned NTPC was ranked No 2 power utility in Asia behind Constellation Energy Group.
Indian Oil Corp (IOC) was placed third as Asia's refining and marketing company ranking, Bharat Petroleum on fifth and Hindustan Petroleum at 19th position.
Tata Power, with a compounded growth rate of 39.7 per cent over three years, was ranked fourth fastest growing Asian company. Reliance Infrastructure, with 28.4 per cent growth rate, was sixth on the list headed by China Resources Power Holdings that had clocked 50.5 per cent growth in the three-year period.
PowerGrid was eighth on the list while Reliance Industries was at 11th position, GAIL at 17th and IOC at 19th.
"In Asia's top 10, PetroChina Co Ltd retains the top spot, while the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp comes in second, ousting CNOOC Ltd, which falls to sixth place. India's Reliance Industries moved from fourth to third, while ONGC rose from fifth to fourth," Platts said.
Among the companies that moved out of the Asian top 10 was India Oil Corp (IOC), the reason for which Platts attributed was "late financial reporting of its 2009 results."
Other Indian companies figuring in the Platts ranking were NTPC (52), IOC (78), Bharat Petroleum (94), GAIL (107), Tata Power (159), Hindustan Petroleum (174), Reliance Infrastructure (198) and PowerGrid Corp (205).
Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings measures financial performance by examining each company's assets, revenue, profits and return on invested capital. All ranked companies have assets greater than $3 billion.
"Reigning supreme at the top of the rankings for the sixth consecutive year is US major ExxonMobil," Platts said on the global rankings. "Despite being fifth in terms of asset value, ExxonMobil came second in terms of both revenues and profits."
Platts rankings are based on a combination of assets, revenues, profits and return on capital invested for listed companies with over $2 billion in assets.
"Second in the running is the now troubled UK major BP, which improved its position from fourth in the rankings in 2008. This reflects a strong performance in 2009 relative to its peers," it said.
Asia as a whole has substantially improved its position in the global energy firmament over the course of 2009. "Of the top ten Asian companies regionally, nine improved their global ranking; of the top 20, 15 improved their global position; while if new entrants are included, out of the top 50 Asian companies, as many as 40 of the top 50 gained a higher global ranking this year to the detriment of other regions. There are now 68 Asian companies in the Platts top 250, compared with 55 last year."
