Russia’s Gazprom ousts ExxonMobil to become world’s biggest energy company

The Russian company is focused on geological exploration, production, transportation, storage, processing and sales of gas, gas condensate and oil, sales of gas as a vehicle fuel, as well as generation and marketing of heat and electric power.

Gazprom has the largest reserves of natural gas in the world and is among Russia’s top four oil producers.

ExxonMobil is now ranked only ninth. Among other big improvers, Germany’s E.ON climbed 112 places to 2nd place from 114th. India’s Reliance Industries went up to 3rd place from last year’s 8th.

The first five companies also include Korea Electric Power and Chinese CNPC. Russian oil company Lukoil is in sixth place.

The rating is formed on the basis of financial indicators of companies, including the value of assets, total revenues, net profit and others. All companies on the list have assets of more than $5.5 billion.

The world’s top ten largest companies earned $63.7 billion last year, 14 percent lower than the $74.3 billion posted the year before.

Coal companies saw a substantial decline in the rating, as more countries are striving to increase the use of renewable energy sources and cleaner fuels. However, China’s Shenhua Energy rose to 13th place from 25th, as the price of coal in China rose sharply following output cuts by Beijing.