(EnergyAsia, October 25 2012, Thursday) — Western companies again dominated the elite in the latest rankings of the world’s top 250 energy companies by Platts that featured more companies from Asia led by China and India.

At an award dinner ceremony in Singapore on Tuesday, global energy media Platts announced that the Asia Pacific region provided 70 of the top 250 companies based on their fiscal 2011 financial performance in four key areas: asset value, revenues, profits and return on invested capital (ROIC).

China provided 23 companies while India had 12, said the McGraw-Hill company.

Larry Neal, president of Platts, a leading global energy, petrochemical and metals information provider, said:

“Chinese and Indian companies’ recent surge forward in the energy industry has been increasingly reflected in the Platts Top 250 roster.

“The fact that these Asian companies are outperforming themselves year after year is a testament to the region’s enormous growth and energy demand.”

Most indicative of the Asia-Pacific region’s growth was its dominance of the 50 ‘Fastest Growing Companies’ list. Asia-Pacific companies accounted for 30 of the 50, based on a three-year compound growth rate (CGR).

Of the 23 Chinese companies in the global Top 250 rankings, 20 appeared on the 50 Fastest Growing list, said Platts.

Similarly, India made an impressive showing, with half of its 12 Top 250 companies also among the 50 fastest growing companies. Cairn India Ltd topped the global fastest growing ranks, with a three-year CGR of 119.8% while new entrant Kunlun Energy Co Ltd of Hong Kong was in third place with a 69.6% CGR.

Despite their expanded global presence, the region is still unable to challenge the dominance of the Western majors, said Platts.

Apart from PetroChina, which was placed ninth, western integrated oil and gas (IOG) and exploration and production (E&P) companies took all of the top 10 spots on the 2012 list.

ExxonMobil reigned supreme in the number one spot of the Top 250 roster for the eighth consecutive year, while Anglo-Dutch major Royal Dutch Shell plc moved up from sixth position to second, displacing U.S. major Chevron to third.

ConocoPhillips dropped one place from seventh to eighth.

Among the Europeans, French major Total slipped from fifth position to seventh while Norway’s Statoil rose from 11th place to sixth.

One of the standout movers among the Top 10 and the overall rankings was BP. The UK major took fourth position on this year’s list, after having plummeted from second place in 2010 to 118th place last year after suffering more than US$38 billion in losses from the Macondo oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Russia’s Gazprom dropped to fifth place this year from third place while Rosneft dipped from ninth to 10th, and LukOil slipped out of the Top 10 this year to 11th place, said Platts.