Letters to the Editor
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Exxon is far from the biggest oil company on the planet.
I think your closing might be misleading - Exxon is the biggest publicly traded oil company on the planet, but in terms of oil reserves, it is a distant 13th, topped by NOCs like Saudi Aramco, National Iranian Oil Company, and the Iraq National Oil Company.
To put it in perspective, in 2006 Saudi Aramco's estimated reserves were at 260 billion barrels of oil. Exxon has around 8.2, depending on which accounting method is used.
This is precisely why Exxon's having trouble replacing reserves - NOCs are growing increasingly proprietary on in-country development. This is a trend that will continue far into the future.