SAUDI ARABIA: Aramco ranked first [Gulf, The (Bahrain)]

The list of the world's 25 largest oil companies was made public in July by Forbes magazine, one of the world's most reputable business titles. The Saudi oil giant topped the rating based on daily oil and gas production volumes generating more than $1 billion a day in revenues, according to Forbes' estimates.

Saudi Aramco is by far the world's top oil company and undergoing a dynamic corporate transformation. Upstream remains the biggest strength, with downstream rapidly expanding too with key initiatives such as Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and Sadara (the Saudi Aramco/Dow Chemical joint venture).

On the Forbes list Russia's Gazprom is second. National Iranian Oil Co. ranked third, ExxonMobil fourth and PetroChina fifth. Also on the list BP (6), Royal Dutch Shell (7), Chevron (9), Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (10), Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (11), Total (13), Petrobras (14), Qatar Petroleum (17), ConocoPhillips (21), Sinopec (23) and Malaysia's Petronas (25).