Russia’s biggest state-owned oil major Rosneft has overtaken ExxonMobil to take the fourth slot in the Energy Intelligence Top 100: Global NOC and IOC Rankings, TASS reported on February 25.

Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of the the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), retained its position at the top of the ranking, followed by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in second and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) in third. ExxonMobil has now dropped to fifth place.

“Rosneft’s advance to No. 4 is due in part to growing gas output, along with lower Exxon results,” said Alex Schindelar, President of Energy Intelligence, as cited by TASS.

Rosneft’s growth comes after the outgoing Biden administration imposed the “harshest ever oil sanctions” on Russia in December, which caused logistic disruptions in Asia amongst Russia’s biggest customers.

The EU has also just imposed a sixteenth sanctions package, which included new measures against Russia’s so-called shadow fleet. However, as reported by bne IntelliNews, the oil sanctions have largely become a spent cannon and had little effect on Russian oil exports. The headline oil price cap sanctions  have been widely ignored and not on barrel of Russian oil has been sold for less than the $60 cap.

Other companies in the top ten include Chevron, Gazprom and PDVSA, which are tied for position, as well as Shell and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).

Several other Russian firms featured in the ranking, with Lukoil placed 13th, Surgutneftegaz 30th, Novatek 32nd, Tatneft 52nd, and Russneft 85th.

The Energy Intelligence Top 100: Global NOC and IOC Rankings is the only system that evaluates both National Oil Companies (NOCs) and International Oil Companies (IOCs) using a standardised methodology. The ranking is based on six key parameters: oil reserves, natural gas reserves, oil production, natural gas production, refining capacity, and petroleum product sales.