Oil and gas companies
57 companies assessed. 4 of them, 7.0%, sit in the two least protected bands, against 53.3% across all 10,525 companies assessed.
The picture
Oil and gas companies are barely touched by AI itself. What is actually squeezing this sector is old-fashioned stuff: sanctions, war, and bigger rivals buying up scale. Russian firms like Gazprom, Rosneft, and Lukoil are being cut off from customers and assets by Western sanctions and Ukrainian strikes, not by any new technology. Meanwhile state-owned giants like ExxonMobil, ADNOC, Sonatrach, and Saudi-adjacent players like QatarEnergy hold enormous reserves and legal monopolies that nothing can easily route around. The one dynamic that decides who holds up: control over physical resources and exclusive government rights. Companies sitting on reserves, pipelines, or grids that only they are legally allowed to run barely feel pressure, no matter what happens with AI. The exceptions are firms exposed to open competition, like Coal India losing ground to private miners, or European retailers like E.ON and Centrica losing customers to tech-forward challengers like Octopus Energy. For most of this sector, survival in the AI era looks a lot like survival in every other era: hold the resource, hold the license, and the rest takes care of itself.
All 57 companies, most protected first
| Company | Standing |
|---|---|
| Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) UAE's state oil company, holding sovereign rights to nearly all of the country's oil and gas reserves. | Hard to displace |
| AGL Energy Limited Australian electricity and gas retailer with the largest private power generation fleet | Hard to displace |
| APA Group APA Group owns and runs roughly half of Australia's gas pipeline network plus power assets | Hard to displace |
| ATCO Ltd. Canadian holding company running regulated electricity, gas, and logistics infrastructure in Alberta and Australia | Hard to displace |
| Canadian Natural Resources Large Canadian oil sands and heavy oil producer with owned mines, pipelines, and reserves | Hard to displace |
| Cenovus Energy Canadian oil-sands producer pumping and refining crude from Alberta's leased-for-decades reserves | Hard to displace |
| China Yangtze Power Co., Ltd. State-owned operator of Three Gorges Dam and five other mega hydropower stations on the Yangtze | Hard to displace |
| CPC Corporation, Taiwan Taiwan's 100% state-owned oil and gas company, running fuel refining, import, and retail nationwide | Hard to displace |
| Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) Government-owned, legally exclusive electricity and water utility for Dubai | Hard to displace |
| E.ON SE E.ON SE runs regulated electricity and gas grids and retail energy supply across Europe | Hard to displace |
| EDP - Energias de Portugal Portuguese utility running regulated power grids, generation, and renewables across Iberia and beyond | Hard to displace |
| Emera Inc. Regulated electric and gas utility holding company serving Nova Scotia, Florida, and the Caribbean | Hard to displace |
| Enbridge Inc Enbridge runs North America's largest energy pipeline and gas utility network, serving 7.1M customers | Hard to displace |
| Equinor ASA Norwegian state-controlled oil, gas, and offshore wind producer | Hard to displace |
| ExxonMobil US oil and gas supermajor producing 4.7M barrels of oil equivalent per day worldwide | Hard to displace |
| Fortis Inc. Holding company owning nine regulated electric and gas utilities in Canada, the US, and Caribbean | Hard to displace |
| Fortum Oyj Finnish state-majority utility running Nordic hydro, nuclear, and wind power plus retail supply | Hard to displace |
| Hydro One Limited Regulated monopoly delivering electricity across Ontario, serving 1.5M customers on wires and poles | Hard to displace |
| Indian Oil Corporation India's largest state-run oil refiner, pipeline operator, and fuel retailer | Hard to displace |
| Kansai Electric Power Co. Regulated electric utility supplying power to Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe with seven owned nuclear reactors | Hard to displace |
| Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) South Korea's state-owned electric transmission and distribution monopoly. | Hard to displace |
| Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. South Korea's sole licensed nuclear operator, running ~24 reactors plus hydro and pumped storage | Hard to displace |
| National Grid plc Owns and runs licensed high-voltage grid and gas networks across Great Britain and the US Northeast | Hard to displace |
| NTPC Limited India's largest state-owned power generator, running coal, gas, hydro and nuclear plants | Hard to displace |
| Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) India's largest state-controlled oil and gas explorer, producer, and refiner | Hard to displace |
| Pertamina Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas firm, sole distributor of subsidized fuel nationwide | Hard to displace |
| Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) State-owned monopoly running Indonesia's electricity grid for 280 million people | Hard to displace |
| PetroVietnam (Vietnam Oil and Gas Group) State-owned monopoly holding Vietnam's exclusive rights to oil, gas, and LNG import infrastructure | Hard to displace |
| Power Grid Corporation of India India's state-run monopoly operator of inter-state electricity transmission lines | Hard to displace |
| Repsol Spanish integrated oil, gas and renewables company with refining, retail fuel and power business | Hard to displace |
| Saudi Electricity Company Saudi Arabia's state-owned monopoly over power generation, transmission and distribution | Hard to displace |
| Schlumberger (SLB) World's largest oilfield services firm, running drilling, completions, and subsurface data for oil and gas producers | Hard to displace |
| Sinopec World's largest oil refiner, China's state-run fuel and petrochemical giant | Hard to displace |
| Snam SpA Italy's sole regulated operator of the national natural gas transmission pipeline grid | Hard to displace |
| Sonatrach Algeria's state oil and gas monopoly, holding 51% of all domestic E&P by law | Hard to displace |
| State Grid Corporation of China State-owned operator running about 80% of China's electricity transmission and distribution grid | Hard to displace |
| Suncor Energy Canadian oil sands miner, upgrader, refiner, and Petro-Canada retailer | Hard to displace |
| TC Energy Corporation TC Energy runs 94,000 km of North American natural gas pipelines under long-term contracts | Hard to displace |
| Terna SpA Terna owns and runs 98% of Italy's high-voltage power grid under state concession | Hard to displace |
| Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. Japan's largest city gas utility, running Tokyo's gas pipeline network since 1885 | Hard to displace |
| Centrica plc British Gas owner; UK energy retailer and operator of nuclear, gas storage and LNG assets | Defensible for now |
| China Shenhua Energy Company Limited China's largest coal miner and state-backed coal-to-power-rail-port conglomerate | Defensible for now |
| CNOOC Limited China's dominant offshore oil and gas producer, holder of exclusive state E&P rights in Chinese waters | Defensible for now |
| Coal India Limited World's largest coal miner, majority government-owned, fuels most of India's power plants | Defensible for now |
| Ecopetrol S.A. Colombia's majority state-owned oil, gas, and pipeline company, producing most of the country's hydrocarbons | Defensible for now |
| Petronas Malaysia's state-owned oil and gas company, controlling the country's petroleum under a 1974 law | Defensible for now |
| QatarEnergy Qatar's state-owned oil and gas company, holder of the North Field, the world's largest LNG reserve | Defensible for now |
| Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) State-controlled monopoly running Tokyo's power grid and the Fukushima cleanup | Defensible for now |
| Vietnam Electricity (EVN) State-owned monopoly that generates, transmits, and sells nearly all of Vietnam's electricity | Defensible for now |
| Woodside Energy Australia's largest independent oil and gas producer, focused on LNG exports | Defensible for now |
| YPF S.A. Argentina's majority state-owned oil, gas, and refining giant with 52% of refining capacity | Defensible for now |
| Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd State-owned utility supplying about 90% of South Africa's electricity | Protection under test |
| Lukoil Russian integrated oil and gas major, third largest producer in the country | Protection under test |
| Gazprom Russian state gas monopoly that once piped a third of Europe's gas supply | Losing its protection |
| Rosneft Russian state-controlled oil major producing about a third of the country's crude | Losing its protection |
| Santos Limited Santos runs Australia's Gladstone LNG and gas fields, exporting to Asia and supplying domestic gas | Losing its protection |
| Sasol Limited South African coal-to-liquids and chemicals producer running Secunda and supplying SA fuel | Losing its protection |
Questions people ask
- is ExxonMobil a safe long term investment
- ExxonMobil sits in the strongest tier with a moat score of 9 and pressure of only 3, mainly from Chevron matching its Permian and Guyana growth. Its scale of 4.7 million barrels a day gives it a lot of room to absorb competition.
- why is Gazprom losing market share
- Gazprom lost most of its grip on the European gas market because EU sanctions forced it out, and US LNG exporters like Cheniere along with QatarEnergy stepped in to supply the gap.
- which state oil companies are most protected from competition
- ADNOC, Sonatrach, and Saudi-style national oil companies hold exclusive legal rights to their country's reserves, which keeps outside pressure close to zero. ADNOC scores a moat of 9 with pressure of just 1.
- is Coal India losing business to private companies
- Yes. Private miners like Adani Enterprises, Jindal Steel & Power, and Vedanta have taken auctioned coal blocks, and Coal India's share of national output has fallen from 82% to 73%.
- why are British Gas and E.ON losing customers
- Octopus Energy's Kraken platform is winning retail energy customers in the UK and Germany with cheaper, tech-driven tariffs. British Gas customer count fell to 7.45 million in H1 2026 and its gas supply share dropped to about 25.9% versus Octopus's 26.7%.
- are Russian oil companies going to survive sanctions
- Lukoil is being forced to sell its $22 billion international division to Carlyle under OFAC sanctions, and Rosneft's refining output is being hit by Ukrainian drone strikes. Both are in weaker positions than most of the sector.
What to watch
- New sanctions or easing of sanctions on Russian oil majors
- Coal India's share of domestic output in coming ministry reports
- Octopus Energy's customer count versus British Gas and E.ON
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