With a market capitalization of $406.3 billion, ExxonMobil Corp. once again led the world’s top oil and natural gas producers in 2011, according to the annual ranking by PFC Energy 50 list.

Irving, TX-based ExxonMobil has led all of the world’s producers except in 2007 and 2009, when PetroChina Co. Ltd. was the No. 1 producer, PFC noted. In the latest ranking PetroChina is in second place with a market valuation of $276.6 billion (see Daily GPI, Jan. 25, 2011).

Six supermajors posted the best group performance among companies returning to this year’s list: ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell plc, Chevron, BP plc, Total SA and ConocoPhillips increased their combined market capitalization 8% in 2011 to $1.2 trillion. Chevron, in fourth place with a market capitalization of nearly $212 billion, increased its valuation by 15% from $183.6 billion, which was the largest percentage increase of any returning company.

“At higher oil prices than four years ago, the combined $3.6 trillion valuation of the PFC Energy 50 companies still falls short of the peak $5.2 trillion in December 2007,” said PFC CEO, Robin West. “Several factors drive the lower valuation, including significantly lower North American gas prices and less buoyant global equity markets.”

Marathon Oil Corp. ended its six-year run on the annual listing after it spun off its downstream operations last summer as Marathon Petroleum Corp. (see Daily GPI, July 1, 2011). Marathon Oil, with a gain of 30%, and Marathon Petroleum, up 14%, led PFC’s Exploration & Production and Refining & Marking segments in share price performance. The combined market value of the two companies increased 24%.

Underperforming on the overall list were national oil companies and companies located in emerging markets, PFC noted.

“With investors viewing these companies more critically due to country risk exposure and lack of portfolio diversification, the groupings posted value declines of 14% and 16%, respectively,” according to the ranking.

The combined value of the four service sector companies on the PFC Energy 50 list — Schlumberger Ltd., Halliburton Co., National Oilwell Varco Inc. and Tenaris SA — declined by 16% as the global energy industry achieved high activity levels with no significant tightness in services and equipment markets (see related story).

“A major story of 2011 has been the expanding oil and gas potential of the North American onshore, which has created an intense demand for infrastructure,” PFC noted.

In recognition of their growing importance, this year’s list included midstream and pipeline companies and four companies from that segment made the list: Enterprise Products Partners LLC in the 25th spot; TransCanada Corp., 37th; Enbridge Inc., 40th; and Kinder Morgan Inc., 41st. As a group the midstream and pipeline companies posted the year’s largest value gains, PFC noted.

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