15 May 2013 – Supermajor ExxonMobil lost its spot atop the list of the 500 most valuable US companies ranked by Fortune magazine despite posting the second highest annual profit in US history in 2012.
The Irving, Texas-based refiner and explorer, with annual revenues of $449.9 billion, lost the crown to retailing behemoth Wal-Mart, which posted $469.2 billion in revenues for 2012.
The oil giant, however, crushed the revenue champion in annual profits; ExxonMobil made a staggering $44.88 billion in profits, dwarfing Wal-Mart’s $17 billion.
ExxonMobil and Wal-Mart tend to dominate the top of the Fortune 500 list. The only other company to hit number one, more than a decade ago, is General Motors, which was ranked seventh this year.
California-based Chevron came in a distant third – as it has for several years in a row – on revenues of $233.9 billion and profits of $26.18 billion.
Phillips 66, the refining arm of ConocoPhillips that was spun off last year, made its debut on the list at number four. ConocoPhillips, meanwhile, found itself in 45th place in its first year as an independent company on revenues of $63.4 billion.
Other upstream oil and gas companies on the list included Murphy Oil at 104 (revenue $28.8 billion; previous rank 98), Apache at 167 (revenue $17.1 billion; previous rank 154), Marathon Oil at 174 (revenue $16.2 billion; previous rank 173), Anadarko Petroleum at 207 (revenue $13.4 billion; previous rank 192) and EOG Resources at 233 (revenue $11.7 billion; previous rank 263).
Of the oilfield equipment and services companies, Halliburton led the way, coming in at number 106 overall, up from 118 last year, on revenue of $28.5 billion.
Baker Hughes reached number 135, up from 141, on revenues of $21.4 billion.
National Oilwell Varco was not far behind at number 144 on revenues of $20 billion. NOV ranked 184 last year.
Cameron international was further down the list at number 310 with $8.5 billion revenues. It ranked 362 last year.
FMC Technologies was number 417, up from 475, on revenues of $6.2 billion.
MRC Global came in at number 451, up from 493 last year, on revenues of $5.6 billion.
The annual list tallies revenues and profits of public and some private companies from the previous fiscal year.
*Luke Johnson, Upstreamonline
