The term “Big Oil Super-majors” refers to the six to eight largest publicly traded oil and gas companies in the world, as identified by oil analysts. These companies are often simply called the super-majors, oil majors, or big oil. The current super-majors are: UK-based BP plc and Royal Dutch Shell plc, US-based ExxonMobil Corporation and Chevron Corporation, Italy-based ENI SpA, and France-based Total SA. Sometimes, American ConocoPhillips is also included in this list, although less frequently since it spun off its downstream operations.
This industry is often referred to as “Big Oil,” similar to other industries dominated by a few large producers, such as “Big Steel.” The term “Big Oil” gained popularity in the late 1960s and today specifically refers to these seven super-majors. Notably, it excludes OPEC oil firms and national state producers, which now play a larger role in influencing oil prices than the Big Oil Super-majors. For instance, in 2013, two state-owned Chinese oil firms, Sinopec and CNPC, had larger revenues than any of the super-majors except Royal Dutch Shell.
The history of the Big Oil Super-majors dates back to the original “Seven Sisters,” a group of Anglo-American oil companies that formed the “Consortium for Iran” cartel. This group nearly controlled the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the early 1970s, dominating approximately 85 percent of the world’s oil reserves until the 1973 oil crisis.
The Big Oil Super-majors began to emerge in the 1990s following a significant drop in oil prices, which led to a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the industry. These new super-majors aimed to increase their economies of scale, reduce large cash reserves through reinvestment, and hedge against the volatility of the global oil markets.
Several key mergers and acquisitions occurred among the major oil and gas companies between 1998 and 2002. These included the mega-merger of Exxon and Mobil to form ExxonMobil in 1999, Chevron’s acquisition of Texaco in 2001, and the merger of Conoco Inc. and Phillips Petroleum Company to create ConocoPhillips in 2002. Additionally, BP acquired both Amoco and ARCO in 1998 and 2000, respectively. France’s Total merged with Petrofina in 1999 and with Elf Aquitaine in 2000 to form Total S.A., resulting in one of the largest multinational corporations globally, according to the Forbes Global 2000 list.
By 2007, all six Big Oil Super-majors were ranked among the top 25 largest corporations in the world. In 2011, ExxonMobil was the largest of the Big Three in terms of market capitalization, profits, and cash flow, closely followed by Royal Dutch Shell and BP.
Today, the Big Oil Super-majors control about six percent of the world’s oil and gas reserves. In contrast, approximately 88 percent of these reserves are held by state-owned oil companies and OPEC cartel companies, primarily located in the Middle East. The London-based newspaper Financial Times sometimes refers to these state-owned companies as “The New Seven Sisters,” highlighting the most powerful national oil and gas companies globally. This list includes Gazprom of Russia, CNPC of China, Petrobras of Brazil, National Iranian Oil Company, Saudi Aramco, PDVSA/Citgo of Venezuela, and Petronas of Malaysia.
