Top ten of the Fortune 500 list for 2012

The Fortune Global 500 list tracks the annual revenues of the world's biggest companies.

Three Chinese enterprises entered the top 10, including Sinopec Group (5th), China National Petroleum Corp (6th) and State Grid Corp of China (7th).

A total of 79 Chinese companies, compared with a total of 69 last year,  were on the 2012 list, of which 69 are based on the Chinese mainland, four are from Hong Kong and six from Taiwan. The number of Chinese companies surpassed that of Japan and gained China a 2nd place of countries with most companies on the list.

Following below are the top 10 companies on this year's list:

1. Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell plc (LSE: RDSA, RDSB), commonly known as Shell, is an Anglo–Dutch multinational oil and gas company incorporated in the United Kingdom and headquartered in the Netherlands. Created by the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum and UK-based Shell Transport & Trading, it is the largest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors".

Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell ranks 1st among the Top 500 companies in the world, grossing over US$484 billion in revenues according to the Fortune 500 list for 2012 released on July 9.

2.  Exxon Mobil

Country: the United States
Rank in 2011: 3
Revenues ($ millions): 452,926
Profits ($ millions): 41,060

 Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas. It is affiliated with Imperial Oil which operates in Canada. ExxonMobil is one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world, having been ranked either #1 or #2 for the past 5 years. However they are currently 4th according to Forbes Global 2000. Exxon Mobil’s reserves were 72 billion oil-equivalent barrels at the end of 2007 and, at then (2007) rates of production, are expected to last over 14 years. With 37 oil refineries in 21 countries constituting a combined daily refining capacity of 6.3 million barrels, Exxon Mobil is the largest refiner in the world, a title that was also associated with Standard Oil since its incorporation in 1870. ExxonMobil is the largest of the six oil super-majors-with daily production of 3.921 million BOE (barrels of oil equivalent). In 2008, this was approximately 3% of world production, which is less than several of the largest state-owned petroleum companies. When ranked by oil and gas reserves it is 14th in the world with less than 1% of the total.

3. Wal-Mart Stores

Country: the United States 
Rank in 2011: 1 
Revenues ($ millions): 446,950 
Profits ($ millions): 15,699

 Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.  branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world’s 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000 list, and the largest public corporation when ranked by revenue. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. Walmart is also the largest grocery retailer in the United States. In 2009, it generated 51% of its US$258 billion sales in the U.S. from grocery business. It also owns and operates the Sam’s Club retail warehouses in North America. Walmart has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names. The company operates under its own name in the United States, including the 50 states and Puerto Rico. It operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the United Kingdom as Asda, in Japan as Seiyu, and in India as Best Price. It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. Walmart’s investments outside North America have had mixed results: its operations in the United Kingdom, South America and China are highly successful, while it was forced to pull out of Germany and South Korea when ventures there were unsuccessful.

4. BP

Country: the United Kingdom 
Rank in 2011: 4 
Revenues ($ millions): 386,463 
Profits ($ millions): 25,700

BP p.l.c.  is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas “supermajors”. It is vertically-integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It also has major renewable energy activities, including in biofuels, hydrogen, solar and wind power. BP has operations in over 80 countries, produces around 3.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and has 22,400 service stations worldwide. Its largest division is BP America, which is the biggest producer of oil and gas in the United States and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. As at 31 December 2010 it had total proven commercial reserves of 18.07 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The name “BP” derives from the initials of one of the company’s former legal names, British Petroleum. BP’s track record of corporate social responsibility has been mixed. The company has been involved in a number of major environmental and safety incidents and received criticism for its political influence. However, in 1997, it became the first major oil company to publicly acknowledge the need to take steps against climate change, and in that year established a company-wide target to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases. BP currently invests over $1 billion per year in the development of renewable energy sources, and has committed to spend $8 billion on renewables in the 2005 to 2015 period.

5. Sinopec Group

Country: China 
Rank in 2011: 5 
Revenues ($ millions): 375,214 
Profits ($ millions): 9,453

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation Limited , or Sinopec Limited, is a majority owned subsidiary of state owned company Sinopec Group. Sinopec Limited is listed in Hong Kong  and also trades in Shanghai and New York. Sinopec Limited’s parent, Sinopec Group, is one of the major petroleum companies in China, headquartered in Chaoyang District, Beijing. Sinopec’s business includes oil and gas exploration, refining, and marketing; production and sales of petrochemicals, chemical fibers, chemical fertilizers, and other chemical products; storage and pipeline transportation of crude oil and natural gas; import, export and import/export agency business of crude oil, natural gas, refined oil products, petrochemicals, and other chemicals. In 2011 it ranked as the 5th largest company in sales in Forbes Global 2000.In 2009, it was ranked 9th by Fortune Global 500 becoming the first Chinese corporation to make the top ten and in 2010 it was ranked 7th.In 2007, it ranked first in the Top 500 Enterprises of China ranking.

6. China National Petroleum

Country: China

Rank in 2011: 6

Revenues ($ millions): 352,338

Profits ($ millions): 16,317

7. State Grid

Country: China 
Rank in 2011: 7 
Revenues ($ millions): 259,142 
Profits ($ millions): 5,678

State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC)  is the largest electric utilities company that transmits and distribution power in China and in the world, headquartered in Xicheng District, Beijing. For distribution, it has its subsidiaries for Northern China, Northeastern China, Eastern China, Middle China and Northwestern China. After the electricity “Plant-Grid Separation” reform in early 2000, the assets of State Electric Power Corporation , which included both power plants and electric grid all over mainland China, were divided into the five “power generation groups” that retained the power plants, and State Grid Corporation headquartered in Beijing with its five regional subsidiaries and China Southern Power Grid Corporation headquartered in Guangzhou, that operate power transmission, distribution and other assets of the old State Electric Power Corporation. It was ranked eighth in the 2010 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest companies by revenue and has moved one place up in the 2011 Fortune Global 500 list.

8. Chevron

Country: the United States 
Rank in 2011: 10 
Revenues ($ millions): 245,621 
Profits ($ millions): 26,895

Chevron Corporation  is an American multinational energy corporation. Headquartered in San Ramon, California, and active in more than 180 countries, it is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining, marketing and transport; chemicals manufacturing and sales; and power generation. Chevron is one of the world’s six “supermajor” oil companies. For the past five years, Chevron has been continuously ranked as one of America’s 5 largest corporations by Fortune 500. In 2011 it was named the 16th largest public company in the world by Forbes Global 2000.

9. ConocoPhillips

Country: the United States 
Rank in 2011: 12 
Revenues ($ millions): 237,272 
Profits ($ millions): 12,436 

ConocoPhillips Company  is an American multinational energy corporation with its headquarters located in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas in the United States. It is also one of the Fortune 500 companies and 22nd on Forbes Global 2000.ConocoPhillips is the fifth largest private sector energy corporation in the world and is one of the six “supermajor” vertically integrated oil companies. It sells fuel under the Conoco, Phillips 66 and Union 76 brands in North America, and Jet in Europe. ConocoPhillips was created through the merger of Conoco Inc. and the Phillips Petroleum Company on August 30, 2002.ConocoPhillips employs approximately 29,600 people worldwide in nearly 40 countries. ConocoPhillips is the second-largest refiner in the United States, with crude oil processing capacity of approximately 2.0 MMBD; and the world’s fourth-largest nongovernment-controlled refiner, with crude oil processing capacity of nearly 2.7 MMBD globally.

10. Toyota Motor

Country: Japan
Rank in 2011: 8
Revenues ($ millions): 235,364
Profits ($ millions): 3,591

Toyota Motor Corporation commonly known simply as Toyota and abbreviated as TMC, is a multinational automaker headquartered in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. In 2010, Toyota Motor Corporation employed 317,734 people worldwide . TMC is the world’s largest automobile manufacturer by sales and production. The company was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937 as a spinoff from his father’s company Toyota Industries to create automobiles. Three years earlier, in 1934, while still a department of Toyota Industries, it created its first product, the Type A engine, and, in 1936, its first passenger car, the Toyota AA. Toyota Motor Corporation group companies are Toyota (including the Scion brand), Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino Motors, along with several “non-automotive” companies. TMC is part of the Toyota Group, one of the largest conglomerates in the world. Toyota Motor Corporation is headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi and in Tokyo. Its Tokyo head office is located at 1-4-18 Koraku, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8701, Japan. Nagoya Office at 4-7-1 Meieki, Nakamura-ku, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture. In addition to manufacturing automobiles, Toyota provides financial services through its Toyota Financial Services division and also builds robots.

Source:  http://www.china.org.cn