THE SUNDAY TIMES (UK): HOW THE BIG FOUR COMPARE: “Royal Dutch/Shell has proven reserves of about 14.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent. This figure may change, however, when the company announces its final revision next month following the accounting scandal last year when it was forced to cut about a third from its total reserves.” (ShellNews.net) 23 Jan 05

BP is the world’s largest integrated oil company, with proven reserves of 18.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent. It operates 27,800 petrol stations worldwide. Its origins lie in Persia (now Iran) where, in 1901, the British adventurer William D’Arcy was the first to strike oil in the Middle East. D’arcy formed Anglo-Persian Oil in 1909, with the British government taking a 51% stake. The company renamed itself British Petroleum in 1954, which was shortened to BP after its $56 billion takeover of America’s Amoco in 1998.

Group chief executive: Lord Browne

Age: 56

Total pay: $5,685,724

Annual sales: $233 billion

Annual sales growth: 30%

Net income: $10.3 billion

Annual income growth: 50%

Employees: 110,000

Exxon Mobil, formed by Exxon’s 1999 acquisition of Mobil, reunited two descendants of John D Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, which once had an almost complete monopoly over the American oil industry before being broken up by the US Supreme Court in 1911.

Currently sitting on proved reserves of 21.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent, and with 42,000 petrol stations internationally, Exxon Mobil is the world’s second-largest integrated oil company. It is currently leading the field in deep-water exploration for new oil reserves.

Chairman and chief executive: Lee Raymond

Age: 66

Total pay: $6.8m

Annual sales: $213 billion

Annual sales growth: 19%

Net income: $21.5 billion

Annual income growth: 88%

Employees: 88,300

Royal Dutch/Shell has proven reserves of about 14.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent. This figure may change, however, when the company announces its final revision next month following the accounting scandal last year when it was forced to cut about a third from its total reserves.

Last year the company announced that it would unify the boards of its British and Dutch holding companies. The two were originally merged in 1907 but retained a dual-board structure.

Chairman and group managing director: Jeroen van der Veer

Age: 57

Total pay: $1,405,824

Annual sales: $202 billion

Annual sales growth: 12.4%

Net income: $12.5 billion

Annual income growth: 32.7%

Employees: 119,000

Total, formed by the merger of France’s Total with Belgium’s PetroFina to create Totalfina, then of Totalfina and Elf Aquitane to creat Total Fina Elf, renamed itself simply Total in 2003. It now operates in more than 100 countries, with reserves of 11.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Total’s origins lie in Compagnie Francaise des Pétroles, set up in 1924 to develop a French oil industry. Lacking any oil reserves in France, the company first established itself in Turkey, before expanding into the Middle East.

Chairman and chief executive: Thierry Desmaret

Age: 58

Total pay: not disclosed

Annual sales: $131 billion

Annual sales: growth: 22%

Net income: $8.8 billion

Annual income growth: 41.5%

Employees: 110,700

Source: Hoover’s Company Profiles. All figures for 2003

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-1452148_2,00.html