The world’s leading energy companies are continually evolving to meet pressing sustainability demands. Many of these industry giants — traditionally rooted in heavily-polluting sectors such as oil and gas — are now spearheading innovation industry-wide and diversifying as they adapt to the global energy transition.
Here are 10 of the industry’s top players who are navigating the complex energy landscape — whether that be the energy transition and surge in energy demand — while securing their own future.
10. China Shenhua Energy
- Revenue: US$48.4bn
- Employees: 83,500
- CEO: Zhi Ren Lv
- Founded: 1995
The largest state-owned coal mining enterprise in mainland China and its largest coal producer, Shenhua Energy mines, refines and sells coal alongside its operations generating and selling electric power across the People’s Republic. Founded in 1995, the leading integrated energy company is a subsidiary of Shenhua Group and also operates in the rail and port transportation space. It plays a crucial role in China's energy supply chain, emphasising sustainable development and technological innovation in the energy industry.
9. ConocoPhillips
- Revenue: US$58.6bn
- Employees: 9,900
- CEO: Ryan Lance
- Founded: 1875
American multinational energy company ConocoPhillips has operations in the oil & gas and NGL sectors. It has a firm dedication to oil and natural gas exploration, ensuring it does so in a way that both yields the best results while acting responsibly. With more than 25 years of IT leadership and digital transformation experience behind her, Pragati Mathur joined ConocoPhillips in 2021 as CDIO and has transformed the company into the digital-first company it is today.
8. CNOOC
- Revenue: US$57.4bn
- Employees: 22,000
- CEO: Yang Hua
- Founded: 1982
China National Offshore Oil Corporation works to put oil and gas exploration and development high on its agenda to stabilise and further its business development. To mitigate challenges posed by climate change, CNOOC has implemented the goal to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and subsequently achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. While navigating this, CNOOC is prioritising domestic exploration and development as well as expanding its overseas business.
7. NextEra Energy
- Revenue: US$28.1bn
- Employees: 16,800
- CEO: John W. Ketchum
- Founded: 1925
Boasting 37,000MW of generating capacity, NextEra Energy bills itself as America’s premier clean energy leader and the world’s largest producer of wind and solar energy. In support of this, it also operates in the battery storage space, with 3,000MW in operation. This underpins its approach to integrated custom solutions, which it offers to help its customers on their own decarbonisation journeys. NextEra Energy’s presence spans 49 US states and four Canadian provinces, ensuring a broad array of people have access to reliable and affordable power.
6. TotalEnergies
- Revenue: US$237.1bn
- Employees: 100,000
- CEO: Patrick Pouyanné
- Founded: 1924
Celebrating its centenary in 2024, TotalEnergies is a French energy giant. It now boasts an ecosystem of 100,000 suppliers worldwide and encourages them to align with its sustainability values. It is a major oil and gas company with operations spanning across the entire energy value chain, including exploration, production, refining, marketing and renewable energies. “Our main responsibility is to help provide safe, affordable energy solutions to as many people as possible, while managing energy consumption and the related emissions,” CEO Patrick Pouyanné says.
5. Shell
- Revenue: US$316.6bn
- Employees: 103,000
- CEO: Wael Sawan
- Founded: 1907
Despite its background being in oil & gas, Shell has transformed some of its main focus toward sustainable solutions, including renewable energy and EV charging. “The energy transition won't come without challenges — that I recognise,” Wael Sawan, CEO of Shell says, “but the opportunity to be able to rewire the entire energy system towards lower carbon, under our watch? What a fantastic opportunity.” Notably, Shell is installing thousands of EV chargers by 2035, with Shell Recharge running one of the UK’s largest EV public charging networks and providing access to more than 23,000 charge points.
4. PetroChina
- Revenue: US$414.8bn
- Employees: 375,800
- CEO: Yongzhang Huang (President and Director)
- Founded: 1999
Chinese oil and gas company PetroChina is the listed arm of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation. Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024, PetroChina is now Asia’s largest oil and gas producer. In the quarter of a century since its inception, it has grown to become one of the world’s largest energy firms by engaging in the exploration, production, refining and marketing of oil and natural gas. It is also investing in renewable energy and sustainable practices to reduce its environmental footprint.
3. Chevron
- Revenue: US$196.9bn
- Employees: 45,600
- CEO: Mike Wirth
- Founded: 1906
American multinational energy corporation Chevron mainly specialises in oil and gas and is active in more than 180 countries. The company is leveraging its longstanding history and expertise to safely deliver lower carbon energy and aims to lower carbon intensity oil, products and natural gas and advance new solutions to reduce carbon emissions of major industries. CEO Mike Wirth says: “We don't control demand, we supply demand. So, we will grow our oil and gas business over the next five years.”
2. ExxonMobil
- Revenue: US$344.6bn
- Employees: 62,000
- CEO: Darren Woods
- Founded: 1882
Working to fuel the world safely and responsibly, ExxonMobil operates across more than 60 countries. It leverages its more than 140 years of history and experience to provide the fuels and chemicals that power modern life. “For us, providing the energy our global economy requires while also offering lower-emission solutions shouldn’t be an either/or choice — we like to think of it as an ‘and’ equation and that’s an equation we’re built to help solve,” the company says. ExxonMobil employs a global workforce made up of more than 62,000 scientists, engineers, researchers, technicians, professionals from in excess of 160 countries who work to safely meet the world’s energy and product needs. ExxonMobil’s CEO Darren Woods says: “Oil and gas companies reliably provide affordable products essential to modern life. Making them into villains is easy, but it does nothing to accomplish the goal of reducing emissions. The better approach is to harness the industry’s capabilities for change. Put us to work. We’ve got the tools to bend the curve on emissions.”
1. Saudi Aramco
- Revenue: US$441bn
- Employees: 116,000
- CEO: Amin H. Nasser
- Founded: 1933
A state-owned petroleum and natural gas company that is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Aramco is the world’s third largest company as set in Forbes’ Global 2000 list, behind investment bank JPMorgan Chase and multinational conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway. Saudi Aramco’s success, much like the Kingdom itself, is founded on oil and gas. CEO Amin Nasser says the world should abandon the ‘fantasy’ of phasing out oil as demand for fossil fuels is expected to rise. It is the single greatest contributor to global carbon emissions of any company in the world and has been since 1965. Despite this, it is a key supporter of the energy transition, but CEO Amin Nasser says the current energy transition strategy is failing. “We should phase in new energy sources and technologies when they are genuinely ready, economically competitive and with the right infrastructure,” Amin says, highlighting the importance of oil and gas security.
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