The New Seven Sisters: The World's Most Powerful Oil Companies

Coined by Italian energy magnate Enrico Mattei, the term "Seven Sisters" referred to the seven international oil companies that dominated the world's oil production after World War II. Their ranks included Standard Oil of New Jersey, Royal Dutch Shell, Anglo Persian Oil Company, Standard Oil of New York, Standard Oil of California, Gulf Oil and Texaco. Mattei could not have imagined how the power would shift away from these Titans barely half a century later.

Today, a whole new group of oil and gas companies have become today's Titans. The "New Seven Sisters" -- selected recently by the Financial Times (FT) -- highlights how largely state-owned companies from the emerging world have become key global players in oil and gas. The FT ranked the New Seven Sisters on the basis of resource base, level of output, company's ambition, scale of their domestic market, and influence in the industry. In order of prominence, they are Saudi Aramco, Russia's Gazprom, CNPC of China, NIOC of Iran, Venezuela's PDVSA, Brazil's Petrobras and Petronas of Malaysia.