In a BofA Global Research report sent to Rigzone last month, analysts offered a comparison of global “big oil” companies.
“After a portfolio comparison note on XOM/CVX last year, we respond to significant investor interest in widening the sample to all five integrated oil companies (ExxonMobil [XOM], Chevron [CVX], BP, TotalEnergies [TTE], Shell [SHEL]),” the analysts noted in the report.
“The U.S. Integrateds on average have much bigger U.S. shale footprints, more oil in the upstream mix (vs gas), more near-term production growth, higher CF/bbl, longer reserve life, higher refining margins due to bigger U.S. footprints, and lower debt,” they added.
“However, their remaining 3-4x EV/EBITDA premium still seems overdone – particularly considering the Europeans’ higher share of long-life assets,” they continued.
In the report, the analysts stated that Chevron has “the highest share of upstream in earnings at 82 percent, with TTE the lowest at 62 percent”.
“Europe’s Integrateds instead have more sizeable midstream, refining/chems and/or low carbon segments,” they added.
“Notably, both XOM and CVX have ~40 percent of their upstream in U.S. shale, compared to ~25 percent for BP and <10 percent for TTE/SHEL, which have more Deepwater, LNG, and conventional,” they continued.
“U.S. barrels tend to be relatively high cash flow for all five, but the longer-life barrels carry less capital intensity. Woodmac’s estimates of 2P reserves are 25 years for XOM, 20 for CVX, TTE, BP, and 16 for SHEL,” the analysts went on to state.
The analysts also noted that XOM and TTE “offer highest production growth at 20 percent from 2025-30”.
“Refining net cash margins are ~$10/bbl at CVX and XOM, $9/bbl at SHEL, $8/bbl at TTE and $6/bbl at BP,” they said.
In the comparison report, the analysts said “XOM stands out for the most refining/chems, highest CF/boe, and the most production growth (mostly from US shale) to 2030”.
“CVX stands out for its 2026 cash flow inflection and highest share of upstream in the mix. TTE stands out for its more diversified (and long-cycle) production growth to 2030 – further enhanced by FCF inflection in its power business,” they added.
“Shell offers highest exposure to LNG/Integrated gas at 29 percent of volume (compared to 11-15% for the others), with the highest per bbl margins of the group, but more modest growth through the end of the decade,” they said.
BP carries the highest financial leverage, the analysts stated in the report.
“We prefer Buy-rated TTE (on the underappreciated power business FCF inflection) and CVX (also on its 2026 FCF inflection) over Neutral-rated XOM and SHEL (mostly on valuation grounds) as well as Underperform-rated BP (continuing to dilute shareholders over bondholders via ill-timed and/or mispriced disposals),” they added.
Rigzone has contacted ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, TotalEnergies, and Shell for comment on the BofA Global Research report. At the time of writing, none of the above have responded to Rigzone.
The BofA Global Research report was sent to Rigzone before ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and Shell released their 2025 results statements. TotalEnergies is currently scheduled to release its 2025 results statement on February 11.
For the full year 2025, ExxonMobil reported earnings of $28.8 billion. Chevron reported total earnings of $12.29 billion in 2025, BP reported an underlying RC profit of $7.48 billion last year, and Shell reported adjusted earnings of $18.52 billion for the full year 2025.
To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com
element
var scriptTag = document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptTag.src = url;
scriptTag.async = true;
scriptTag.onload = implementationCode;
scriptTag.onreadystatechange = implementationCode;
location.appendChild(scriptTag);
};
var div = document.getElementById(‘rigzonelogo’);
div.innerHTML += ” +
‘
‘ +
”;
var initJobSearch = function () {
//console.log(“call back”);
}
var addMetaPixel = function () {
if (-1 > -1 || -1 > -1) {
/*Meta Pixel Code*/
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘1517407191885185’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
/*End Meta Pixel Code*/
} else if (0 > -1 && 58 > -1)
{
/*Meta Pixel Code*/
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘1517407191885185’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
/*End Meta Pixel Code*/
}
}
// function gtmFunctionForLayout()
// {
//loadJS(“https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-K6ZDLWV6VX”, initJobSearch, document.body);
//}
// window.onload = (e => {
// setTimeout(
// function () {
// document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”, function () {
// // Select all anchor elements with class ‘ui-tabs-anchor’
// const anchors = document.querySelectorAll(‘a .ui-tabs-anchor’);
// // Loop through each anchor and remove the role attribute if it is set to “presentation”
// anchors.forEach(anchor => {
// if (anchor.getAttribute(‘role’) === ‘presentation’) {
// anchor.removeAttribute(‘role’);
// }
// });
// });
// }
// , 200);
//});
