ONGC beats China’s CNOOC to be Asia’s No. 1 oil and gas firm
New Delhi   04-Nov-2010

Public Sector upstream giant ONGC has moved up eight steps to the 18th rank in the overall listing of global energy companies in Platts “ Top 250 Global Energy Company Ranking 2010”. Platts, a reputed energy research agency, carries out global rankings of Top 250 listed energy companies every year. These rankings were released in Singapore on Wednesday.

This is the highest ever ranking for ONGC in the list of Platts Top 250, ahead of global leaders like Conoco Phillips, Statoil, Chinese major CNOOC, BG and others. ONGC was ranked 26th in 2009.

The select list is topped by US oil giant ExxonMobil, followed by British energy major BP, Russia’s Gazprom, Petrobras of Brazil and French oil major Total in that order. India’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) figures at the 13th position.

ONGC has also relegated Chinese rival CNOOC to the second position to become Asia’s top company in the oil and gas exploration segment.

Platts ranked Reliance Industries as the top oil refining and marketing company in Asia while public sector gas major GAIL India was ranked No. 1 company among gas utilities.

NTPC was ranked No 2 power utility in Asia behind Constellation Energy Group. IndianOil (IOC) was placed third in Asia’s refining and marketing company rankings, with Bharat Petroleum at the fifth spot and Hindustan Petroleum at 19th position.

Tata Power was ranked the fourth fastest growing Asian company. Reliance Infrastructure was sixth on the list headed by China Resources Power Holdings.

In Asia’s overall top 10, which includes downstream oil refining and marketing companies, PetroChina Co Ltd retained the top spot, while China Petroleum & Chemical Corp came in second, ousting CNOOC Ltd, which fell to sixth place. India’s Reliance Industries moved from the fourth to third spot, while ONGC rose from fifth to fourth, Platts said.

Among the firms that moved out of the Asian top 10 list was IOC. Platts annually carries out global rankings of the top 250 listed energy companies evaluated on four key metrics — assets, revenues, profits and return on invested capital.