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14. There is a concern that, whether through design or lack of capacity, investments by NOCs
in conventional hydrocarbons will not keep pace with demand growth, while restricted
access to resources will prevent IOCs from making up the shortfall. Production at such
IOCs as ExxonMobil, British Petroleum (BP), Royal Dutch/Shell and Chevron is declining
or stagnating. Thus, IOCs and NOCs compete for resources, reserves and ultimately for
customers, but there is also a good deal of collaboration among them. Many fields are
co-owned by several companies, with one company acting as lead operator. 9
Figure 1.2. Merger and acquisition activity in the oil and gas industry, 1993–2007
US$ billion
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Source: David Wood & Associates.
1.3. Major oil companies today
15. The Financial Times Global 500 list of companies in 2008 includes 48 oil and gas
companies, of which five are oil services companies (table 1.1). Their total market value
exceeded US$4.1 trillion and their total turnovers exceeded US$3.2 trillion. There are also
many smaller or second tier energy companies, typically regional players with a more
limited geographic spread of activities.
9 “Unconventional oil and gas no solution”, in Oxford Analytica, 12 Mar. 2007.
6 TMOGE-R-[2008-12-0110-1]-En.doc/v3