Saudi Aramco leads world’s natural resource giants into 2023

Sopuruchi Onwuka

With market capitalization of some $1.8 trillion, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia, Aramco, stands as the world’s biggest natural resource company in the world.

 The company which sits on estimated reserves base of 270 billion barrels is even expected to expand its size in the immediate to medium term as the value of the resource remains in acute demand following global supply uncertainty associated with the prevailing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Despite the global climate sentiments propelling demand migration from fossil fuels to green and renewable energy sources, demand and price projections for petroleum energy are expected to remain strong in the international market.

Besides, value for petroleum resources proved very resilient in recent years when the commodity rapidly recovered from COVID-19 demand lull to thrive in global markets which were bedeviled by volatility, pumping billions of dollars into the waiting hands of investors.

However, the energy companies are just a niche in the natural resource industry which has solid, long-term growth prospects as the global energy transition taps into renewable sources like solar, wind and hydropower.

An analysis of global natural resource reserves by Insider Monkey drew the first list of the biggest companies in natural resources industry; and the resources analyzed by the company include oil, gas, minerals, mining, forest, timber and renewable energy.

In ranking the companies, the analysts considered according to their market capitalization, and naturally, oil and gas companies were taking the most share of the list; and in some cases major companies from small segments of the industry like timber and forests were unable to make it to the list.

The final ranking of the companies according to their market capitalization which also represents the value potential of operated assets produced Saudi Aramco, the country’s national oil company, as the biggest global natural resource behemoth, pushing back renowned private multinational corporations whose brands hog the global industry.

Expectedly, ExxonMobil comes a distant second with market capitalization of $455 billion. ExxonMobil Corporation, the analysts observed, stands out in the global commodity market with responsibility for 2% of the world’s energy and 3% of the planet’s oil demands.

The company has in the wake of the global pandemic maintained a streak of strong financial results that poured out billions of dollars in dividends to shareholders. It also mapped out solid capital outlay for development of new and conventional energy.

Another American multinational, Chevron Corporation comes after ExxonMobil with market capitalization of $341billion.

Chevron operates in hydrocarbon exploration and production, sales, power generation and all other important areas of the oil and gas industry. This natural resource company raked in revenue of over $227 billion on a TTM basis.

Enter the foremost European multinational oil major, Shell, which stands tall with a market capitalization of $201 billion.

Shell indicated in briefings that its Q4 numbers for the gas-trading unit are expected to be much stronger that Q3 figures. The company also said it now expects fourth quarter production from its upstream segment to be in the range of 1.825 million – 1.925 million boe/day, up from the previous estimates of 1.75 million – 1.95 million boe/day.

NextEra Energy follows with the introduction of new energy resources in the giants’ league, including solar and renewable energy. The company rides on market capitalization of $166.23 billion.

NextEra Energy is the world’s largest generator of renewable energy from wind and sun and it provides electricity to millions of householders in the United States from plants that also run on nuclear energy and natural gas.

According to ClearBridge Investments, “NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) is an integrated utility business with a regulated utility operating in Florida and the largest wind business in the U.S. NextEra’s regulated business includes Florida Power & Light, which serves nine million people in Florida. NextEra’s share price rose along with the passage of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which considerably expands support for renewable energy.”

Next in the line is TotalEnergies with market capitalization of $163 billion. The French multinational giant with strong business interests in Nigeria also operates in power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing and other key areas of the oil and gas market.

With strong reputation for corporate social responsibility and small business linkages, it was reported that TotalEnergies is set to slash energy prices for small businesses after French President Macron urged energy companies in the country to sign “excessive” contracts with small businesses in the face of rising inflation.

The company also said that it plans to offer lower energy rates to new customers.

The BHP Group whose businesses straddle solid minerals and energy commodities stands on market capitalization of $162.4 billion to make the seventh position in the list.

BHP Group is considered the biggest mining firm in the world.

With over 5.3 billion barrels of oil equivalents and market capitalization of $147 billion, American multinational oil major, ConocoPhillips, which cashed its assets in Nigeria to indigenous Oando Plc stands in the giants’ line with market capitalization of $147 billion.

ConocoPhillips operates energy plants all over the world. In the US, its plants are located in Alaska, the Eagle Ford Group, the Permian Basin, the Bakken Formation, the Gulf of Mexico and the Anadarko Basin.

ConocoPhillips currently plays key part in enabling Europe to cut its reliance on Russian energy, after entering deal with QatarEnergy to supply gas to Germany for 15 years starting in 2026.

In the ninth position is Siemens Aktiengesellschaft which rides on market capitalization of $123 billion to dominate the wind energy industry. Its Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy segment manufactures wind turbines and provides onshore and offshore wind services. Siemens Aktiengesellschaft’s SG 14.0-222 wind turbine is the largest wind turbine in the world.

The position is occupied by Rio Tinto PLC with market capitalization: $122.60 billion. The ancient company which was founded in 1873 is the second-largest mining company in the world. It operates in almost all major natural resource mining areas such as bauxite, iron, aluminum, borates, coal, diamond, and gold, among others.

Recently, a Financial Times report said that Rio Tinto PLC was looking to acquire critical assets in important industries such as lithium and nickel.

In the 11^th position is of biggest natural resources companies in the world is BP plc with market capitalization of $104 billion.

The London-based company operates in all important areas of the oil and gas sector, including exploration and extraction, refining, distribution and marketing, power generation, and trading.

Following is Vale SA which has a market capitalization of $83 billion.

The Brazilian firm is the largest producer of iron ore and nickel in the world. It also produces manganese, ferroalloys, copper, bauxite, potash, kaolin, and cobalt.

It also operates hydroelectricity plants.

Glencore plc is next with market capitalization of $81 billion. The company holds huge market shares in the global zinc, copper, oil and grain markets. And with its facilities all over the world it runs businesses related to metals, minerals, natural gas and agricultural products.

In the 14^th position is China Shenhua Energy with market capitalization of $75 billion: the coal-focused company is reputed to be the biggest state-owned mining company in the world with several coals mines and a network to transport its coal resources via roads and seas.

Russian Gazprom enters with market capitalization of $65 billion.  The Russian majority state-owned energy company was the largest publicly listed natural gas company in the world as of the end of 2019.

The diplomatic and trade sanctions on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have stripped the company a huge share of the European energy market.

The American mining company which dominates the important industry segment of molybdenum production, Freeport-McMoRan, comes next with market capitalization: $60 billion. The company is one of the biggest producers of copper and gold. It operates the biggest goal mine in the world, located in Papua, Indonesia.

ClearBridge Investments stated: “Seeing better opportunities elsewhere in the materials sector, we exited our position in Ecolab and added to copper producer Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX), which supplies a much-needed resource for the energy transition, and specialty chemical company Linde (LIN), which has historically held onto pricing gains it has achieved following increases in energy costs. We think this pricing power should protect profitability during the acute inflationary phase and potentially lead to margin expansion when cost pressures abate. We think this pricing power should protect profitability during the acute inflationary phase and potentially lead to margin expansion when cost pressures abate.”

In the seventeenth place is the Anglo American Platinum Limited with market capitalization of $56 billion. The UK-based Anglo American Platinum dominates the lucrative platinum industry and accounts for about 40% of the total platinum production in the world. The company is also one of the biggest producers of diamonds, copper, nickel, iron ore and steelmaking coal.

Anglo American Platinum said it was expecting approximately 5% jump in its total production in 2023.

The Southern Copper Corporation with market capitalization of $52 billion is the biggest publicly traded copper production company in the world. It also ranks high in the production of molybdenum, silver, and zinc.

Copper prices jumped in November on the hopes that China would move away from COVID restrictions and reopen its economy. China’s return to economic growth trajectory is expected to bode well for some of the biggest natural resource companies in the world.

In the nineteenth position is Saudi Arabian Mining Company with market capitalization of $46 billion.

The Saudi Arabian Mining Company, or Maa’den, is a Saudi Arabian giant which was established to explore the vast resources of minerals in the country. The government of Saudi Arabia still owns a 50% of the company. And the company is working on mining and exploration of phosphate, aluminum, gold and base metals in the country.

Thus the last in the list of 20 is Weyerhaeuser Company which stands on market capitalization of $23 billion. The company dominates an important niche area of the market including forests and timberlands.

Weyerhaeuser, which identifies itself as a REIT, owns a whopping 12,400,000 acres of timberlands in the U.S., and manages an additional 14,000,000 acres of timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada.