World's largest oil companies saw revenues decline 35% in 2020

As the world’s biggest oil companies published their audited financial statements for 2020, the true picture of the impact of the coronavirus pandmic takes shape. And it is a depressing one.

The biggest oil companies in the world, including international oil companies, Saudi Aramco, Russia’s top oil producers, and the top oilfield services providers, saw their combined revenues fall by 35.4 percent to US$1.3 trillion in 2020 from US$2.02 trillion in 2019, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency.

The agency analysed the financial statements of the 14 biggest firms— ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, Shell, BP, Total, Eni, Equinor, Lukoil, Rosneft, and Saudi Aramco.

Shell’s revenues dropped the most—by 48 percent—while BP, Aramco, and Exxon all saw their respective revenues fall by more than 30 percent in 2020 compared to 2019, according to the data pulled by the Anadolu Agency.

The oil price and demand collapse last year hit all oil companies’ revenues and earnings, as both the upstream and downstream divisions suffered from the pandemic-driven crisis. Some posted historic losses as they also wrote down the value of their resources.

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ExxonMobil, for example, booked its first annual loss since the 1999 merger of Exxon and Mobil, and the first annual loss in at least 40 years after the pandemic crushed oil demand and prices and led to a huge domestic gas asset impairment.

BP also posted a massive loss of US$5.7 billion in 2020, compared to a US$10-billion profit in 2019.

Total reported a net loss of US$7.2 billion for 2020, down from a profit of US$11.27 billion for 2019, and said it will change its name to TotalEnergies to reflect its shift to renewable energy.

Shell managed to turn a profit last year, but it was down by a massive 87 percent compared to 2019.

Saudi Aramco’s net profit slumped by 44 percent year over year to US$49 billion for 2020, but it kept its US$75 billion annual dividend, most of which goes to the biggest oil firm’s majority owner with 98 percent, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Isaac Anyaogu

Isaac Anyaogu is an Assistant editor and head of the energy and environment desk. He is an award-winning journalist who has written hundreds of reports on Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, energy and environmental policies, regulation and climate change impacts in Africa. He was part of a journalist team that investigated lead acid pollution by an Indian recycler in Nigeria and won the international prize - Fetisov Journalism award in 2020. Mr Anyaogu joined BusinessDay in January 2016 as a multimedia content producer on the energy desk and rose to head the desk in October 2020 after several ground breaking stories and multiple award wining stories. His reporting covers start-ups, companies and markets, financing and regulatory policies in the power sector, oil and gas, renewable energy and environmental sectors He has covered the Niger Delta crises, and corruption in NIgeria’s petroleum product imports. He left the Audit and Consulting firm, OR&C Consultants in 2015 after three years to write for BusinessDay and his background working with financial statements, audit reports and tax consulting assignments significantly benefited his reporting. Mr Anyaogu studied mass communications and Media Studies and has attended several training programmes in Ghana, South Africa and the United States

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