Fortune 500 roster represents two thirds of U.S. gross domestic product
For decades it has represented a badge of honor for any U.S. business. It has been populated by icons of U.S. industry—Ford, General Motors, International Paper, Standard Oil, IBM, General Electric. If your company’s name was in the “Fortune 500” that signified you were big—and successful. It whispered to potential investors that your company had long-term financial strength, superior management and the demonstrated ability to create, manufacture and sell products for a profit in good times and bad.
The Fortune 500 is published by Fortune Magazine for the 63rd year.
This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 63rd running of the annual list, according to the magazine that became famous for it.
Fortune said that the 500 companies in its 2017 edition represent two-thirds of the U.S. GDP with $12 trillion in revenues, $890 billion in profits, $19 trillion in market value, and 28.2 million employees worldwide.
Looking at a smaller bite of the list that’s easier to chew, below are the 25 largest companies that made the 2017 Fortune 500 list (ranked by revenue – millions):
Oil & Gas 10th largest sub-sector in the Fortune 25
Oil & Gas 360® grouped Fortune’s largest 25 U.S. companies into 11 sub-sectors, ranked by combined revenues (see pie chart).
Healthcare took the prize at $1 trillion (Baby Boomers are aging). Oil & Gas as a sub-sector of the Fortune 25 came in tenth with $107 billion in revenues.
Data: Fortune; Sub-Sector Chart: Oil & Gas 360
Healthcare is by far the largest sub-sector—seven companies in the top 25 had combined revenues of $1,040,888,000,000—that’s one trillion dollars. Brick-and-mortar retail (containing WalMart, Costco, Kroger and Home Depot) came in second with $814.5 billion in revenues, and automobile manufacturing (where GM and Ford combined for $318.2 billion) ranked a distant third. The oil and gas sub-sector came in at number 10 with ExxonMobil’s and Chevron’s combined revenues totaling $107.6 billion.
Only 12 E&P and service companies made the Fortune 500
Narrowing the list of 500 companies to just the exploration and production and oilfield service companies—12 companies made it into the list: 2 integrated majors, 6 E&Ps, 3 oilfield service, [EDITOR’S NOTE: Freeport-McMoRan’s revenues are skewed by mining revenues but do include oil and gas production; the company is divesting its oil and gas assets one by one in 2017, however in 2016 it was tagged as part of the energy group by Fortune.]
Each company’s overall ranking within the Fortune 500 is shown to the left of the name (ranked by revenue – millions, right side):
| 4 Exxon Mobil $205,004 |
| 19 Chevron $107,567 |
| 115 ConocoPhillips $24,360 |
| 173 Halliburton $15,887 |
| 175 Freeport-McMoRan $15,789 |
| 231 Devon Energy $12,197 |
| 278 Occidental Petroleum $10,398 |
| 285 Baker Hughes $9,841 |
| 343 Chesapeake Energy $7,872 |
| 344 Anadarko Petroleum $7,869 |
| 375 National Oilwell Varco $7,251 |
| 488 Apache $5,354
——————————————————— |
| 525 Hess $4,844 |
| 533 Peabody Energy $4,715 |
| 536 Marathon Oil $4,650 |
Almost making the 500 cut-off were three more producers—Hess, Peabody Energy and Marathon Oil, coming in the Fortune list at number 525, 533 and 536, respectively.
The 2017 Fortune 500 interactive list from Fortune Magazine is here.
