Oil & Gas Industry Leads Forbes Profit Growth List In 2019

The oil and gas sector on the Forbes 2019 list of the world’s biggest public companies saw the largest profit growth among the top 10 sectors on the list, data and analytics company GlobalData said on Tuesday.

GlobalData analyzed the annual change in sales and profits between 2018 and 2019 of the top 10 sectors by sales on the Forbes list of The World’s Largest Public Companies.

The analytics company found that the biggest gainer in terms of profit growth was the oil and gas sector with a 36.3-percent increase in profit between 2018 and 2019, followed by technology and communication with 19.8-percent growth, metals and mining growing at a rate of 13.6 percent, banking with a 12.6-percent increase, and pharmaceuticals and healthcare, with 11.8-percent growth.

In terms of revenue growth rates, the oil and gas industry beat technology and communication to emerge as the top sector in the Forbes 2019 list with 16.2 percent annual growth in revenues, GlobalData’s analysis showed. 

“The Declaration of Cooperation between OPEC member countries and 11 non-OPEC oil producing countries on 30 November 2017 for voluntary production adjustments to about 1.8 million barrels per day during 2018 had a positive impact on the oil and gas sector,” Parth Vala, Company Profiles Analyst at GlobalData, said, commenting on the company’s findings.

Despite the nearly 40-percent oil price slide in the fourth quarter of last year, oil and gas supermajors booked solid sets of Q4 and 2018 results. Three of Big Oil’s five—Shell, ExxonMobil, and Chevron—reported strong figures for 2018, with many key metrics beating analyst forecasts and some earnings at their highest levels since 2014—the last time the price of oil was above $100 a barrel.

Those companies are on the Forbes 2019 list of the largest public firms, with Shell sitting at number 9, Exxon at 11^th, and Chevron at 19^th, closely followed by Petrochina at 22^nd, BP at 24^th, and Total at the 25^th spot.  

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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