Peak Oil News and Message Boards

As oil prices have trebled over the past four years, a new group of oil and gas companies has risen to prominence. They have consolidated their power as aggressive resource holders and seekers and pushed the world's biggest listed energy groups, which emerged out of the original seven sisters - ExxonMobil and Chevron of the US and Europe's BP and Royal Dutch Shell - on to the sidelines and into an existential crisis.

The "new seven sisters", or the most influential energy companies from countries outside the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, have been identified by the Financial Times in consultation with numerous industry executives.

They are Saudi Aramco, Russia's Gazprom, CNPC of China, NIOC of Iran, Venezuela's PDVSA, Brazil's Petrobras and Petronas of Malaysia.

Overwhelmingly state-owned, they control almost one-third of the world's oil and gas production and more than one-third of its total oil and gas reserves. In contrast, the old seven sisters - which shrank to four in the industry consolidation of the 1990s - produce about 10 per cent of the world's oil and gas and hold just 3 per cent of reserves. Even so, their integrated status - which means they sell not only oil and gas, but also gasoline, diesel and petrochemicals - push their revenues notably higher than those of the newcomers.

The biggest contributor will be Saudi Aramco, the world's largest and most sophisticated national oil company and thus number one on the FT list. After the surge in crude prices since 2002, Saudi Aramco launched its most ambitious expansion programme in a generation. It aims to boost production capacity from 11 million barrels a day - or 13 per cent of today's global consumption - to 12.5 million b/d and then 15 million b/d.

The biggest contributor will be Saudi Aramco, the world's largest and most sophisticated national oil company and thus number one on the FT list. After the surge in crude prices since 2002, Saudi Aramco launched its most ambitious expansion programme in a generation. It aims to boost production capacity from 11 million barrels a day - or 13 per cent of today's global consumption - to 12.5 million b/d and then 15 million b/d.

Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.

The world’s largest oil companies have survived a life-changing crisis, and are now poised to reap the rewards, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said. Big Oil is in a sweet spot with rising oil prices and low operating costs, leaving them with the biggest cash-flow growth in two decades and boosting earnings, Goldman said in a report Monday. That will increase their attraction for investors after years of elevated spending followed by crude’s slump sent their weighting in global equity indexes to a 50-year low, according to the bank. “We see this as the start of a new golden age for Big Oil’s reborn Seven Sisters,” said analysts led by Michele Della Vigna, referring to the seven largest non-state oil companies. It is “also a favorable environment for returns in the commodity.” Crude’s slump since the middle of 2014 wiped out some smaller companies