MNN - Mother Nature Network

PARIS — Rosneft will shoot into the top league of quoted oil producers once it has taken over TNK-BP even though it will trail far behind the giant Saudi Arabian state-owned firm Aramco and would have a far lower capitalization than U.S. or Chinese rivals.

 

Rosneft is in the final stages of a deal to acquire half of TNK-BP from British group BP in a process set to be followed by full control with the acquisition of the rest of the venture from a group of Russian oligarchs.

 

The combined oil production by Rosneft and TNK-BP in 2011 was about 4.0 million barrels per day.

 

This would make Rosneft the biggest stock-quoted oil producer.

 

Rosneft currently ranks second with 2.38 million barrels a day, behind the leader PetroChina of China which produces 2.42 million barrels. US group ExxonMobil ranks, and will remain third, with 2.31 million barrels.

 

By contrast Aramco produces about 10 million barrels per day.

 

The rise of Rosneft in the ranking of publicly quoted oil groups is a sign of the rising power of Russia on the global oil stage. Russia is a challenger to Saudi Arabia for the title of the biggest oil producer in the world.

 

On the basis of total production of hydrocarbons — oil and natural gas — Rosneft with TNK-BP ranks third among quoted groups after PetroChina and ExxonMobil, producing about 4.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

 

But on the basis of capitalization, of the stock market valuation, Rosneft falls far down the list of oil and gas companies.

 

According to a calculation by AFP at the end of last week, ExxonMobil tops the list with capitalization of $420 billion (322 billion euros), followed by PetroChina at $256 billion, Royal Dutch Shell $221 billion and U.S. group Chevron $220 billion.

 

Rosneft and TNK-BP together are valued at about $110 billion. This would take the new group up several notches in the ranking to about tenth place behind Russian group Gazprom.

 

According to Moscow's Kommersant business daily, the cash-share deal with BP will take the British company's stake in Rosneft to 14 percent and make it the second-biggest shareholder in Rosneft after the Russian state, which holds more than half of Rosneft directly and indirectly.

 

Copyright 2012  AFP Global Edition