Company lists · Data refreshed September 2026
Top 25 Oil exploration companies worldwide
RevenueBase identified 2,830 oil exploration companies worldwide as of September 2026 and tracks 322,741 professional contacts across them, including 56,870 with verified work emails. The United States is the largest market and Houston the largest hub.
This list covers oil exploration companies worldwide, matched on what each company actually does as described in its own words. Ranked by team size, largest first. Every row shows the company's own description, its RevenueBase Smart Search rating, and when it was last checked. Data refreshed September 20, 2026. Country and city lists for oil exploration companies follow the table.
Published by RevenueBase, a B2B data infrastructure company. This list was built with RevenueBase Smart Search, the natural-language company search RevenueBase customers use to build their own targeted lists and unlock verified emails and direct dials at the companies on them. How these lists are built and judged.
The 25 largest oil exploration companies worldwide
Ranked by team size| # | Company | Contacts | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 28,095 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) is a leading global energy company committed to powering society’s progress in a responsible and sustainable manner.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 2 | 15,828 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “We are a global oil and gas company tasked with an important job-to safely find and deliver energy for the world.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 3 | 14,332 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “We provide reliable energy for a world with growing demand.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 4 | 12,478 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “We are the leading exploration and production company in the Sultanate of Oman that delivers the majority of the country's crude oil production and natural gas supply, but above…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 5 | 6,379 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Cenovus Energy Inc.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 6 | 5,559 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “We aim to thrive through the global energy transition with a low-cost, lower-carbon, profitable, resilient and diversified portfolio.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 7 | 5,489 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “We are an independent oil and natural gas acquisition, exploitation and exploration company.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 8 | 5,220 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Founded over thirty years ago, Perenco is an independent hydrocarbon producer involved in the entire lifecycle of projects, from exploration to decommissioning.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 9 | 4,845 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Seadrill is setting the standard in deepwater oil and gas drilling.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 10 | 4,642 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Hess Corporation is a global independent energy company engaged in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 11 | 4,346 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “EOG Resources, Inc.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 12 | 3,932 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “We are the one and only national company that possesses combined competencies in oil & gas services: seismic, drilling and oilfield.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 13 | 3,753 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “PTTEP conducts business in petroleum exploration, development, and production.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 14 | 3,514 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Murphy Oil Corporation is a global independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 15 | 3,460 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Anadarko is among the world’s largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies, with corporate offices in The Woodlands, Texas.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 16 | 2,946 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “A PERBRAS é uma empresa brasileira que atua há 50 anos no mercado de Petróleo e Gás em diversas regiões do Brasil.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 17 | 2,910 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Medco E&P Indonesia, a subsidiary of Medco Energi Internasional Tbk, is dedicated to oil and gas operations in Indonesia, with a focus on upstream activities such as exploration…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 18 | 2,764 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Pluspetrol es una empresa privada de energía con más 45 años de experiencia en la exploración y producción de hidrocarburos.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 19 | 2,703 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Aker BP explores for and produces oil and gas on the Norwegian continental shelf.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 20 | 2,585 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Cairn Oil & Gas, part of Vedanta Limited, is India's largest private oil and gas exploration and production company, contributing more than a quarter of India’s domestic crude oil…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 21 | 2,511 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “INA-Industrija nafte, d.d.(INA, d.d.) is a medium-sized European oil company.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 22 | 2,450 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “The pioneer of the natural gas industry in the country, Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) has been a frontline player in the energy sector since the mid-1950s.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 23 | 2,259 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Bapco (with a legacy of being referred to as “The Company” in Arabic - Ash Shariqa locally) is a trusted and enterprising organisation, which has never stood still since its…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 24 | 2,249 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “OiLSERV is a provider of an expanding range of oilfield services, including well logging, well testing, production enhancement, drilling services, surface production management…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 25 | 2,240 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (“Petrotrin”), is an integrated Oil and Gas Company.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
RevenueBase Smart Search
RevenueBase Smart Search assesses information from a company’s LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website, and other publicly available sources. It uses that information to rate how closely the company relates to this list’s category: oil exploration companies. Every row carries its rating and the description the rating was read from, so each one can be checked rather than taken on trust.
- Strong evidence
- The company's own public description of its business names oil exploration companies.
- Partial evidence
- Its own public description names part of oil exploration companies, so it works in or next to the category without describing itself that way.
- Indirect evidence
- The description shown does not name oil exploration companies. The match rests on the rest of the company's public profile rather than the one sentence quoted here, so this is the rating to check first.
RevenueBase Smart Search is how these lists are built: RevenueBase's data engine and AI assemble the companies that match a category defined in a user's own words, so a list can be about what companies actually do rather than about whichever industry code they were filed under.
Showing 25 of 2,830 oil exploration companies worldwide
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Oil exploration companies worldwide at a glance
As of Sep 20, 2026Companies by employee count
Email recency is reported on each country list linked below.
How this list was built
Company categories are rarely black and white. RevenueBase reads each company's own description of its business to decide whether it belongs among oil exploration companies, so some rows will be adjacent to the category rather than pure plays. The description and RevenueBase Smart Search rating on every row are there so you can check each match yourself.
- Source
- The RevenueBase company graph: 60 million companies and 398.9 million professional contacts resolved from primary sources, queried with RevenueBase Smart Search, the natural-language company search available to every RevenueBase user.
- Coverage
- Every country. Country and city lists for oil exploration companies are linked below.
- What qualifies
- Companies worldwide whose own description of what they do matches “oil exploration companies”. Matching reads each company's description, not its industry code or its name.
- RevenueBase Smart Search
- RevenueBase Smart Search is how this list is assembled and how each row is rated. RevenueBase's data engine and AI assess a company's LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website and other publicly available information, then relate it to a category defined in a user's own words. Each row is rated strong evidence (its own description names oil exploration companies), partial evidence (it names part of the category) or indirect evidence (the description shown names none of it and the match rests on the rest of the company's profile). The description supporting each rating is quoted on the row.
- What we exclude
- Companies whose own description does not clearly place them among oil exploration companies, and records with no verified work email.
- Match quality
- In blind human judging of this matching method, 86% of matched companies were on target. Expect roughly 1 in 7 rows to be adjacent to the category rather than a pure play. Every row shows the company's own description and its RevenueBase Smart Search rating so you can judge each match yourself. Read the full methodology: how the lists are built, how the judging worked, and what the figure means.
- Ranking
- Team size, largest first: companies are ordered by the number of professionals RevenueBase tracks at each one. Employee ranges shown are reported bands, for context.
- Verification
- Every listed company carries at least one verified work email, 56,870 across the full list. Contacts re-verify on a rolling cadence, and each contact's own verification date is shown inside RevenueBase.
- Refresh
- This page's figures were pulled from the company graph on September 20, 2026. Lists refresh periodically as the graph is re-checked.
- Corrections
- Wrong category, wrong headquarters, or a company that has closed? Use “Report an issue” on any row. Reports go to the RevenueBase Data Team and feed back into the company graph.
Oil exploration companies by location
18 lists · largest firstEvery Oil exploration companies list RevenueBase publishes, by country and city. Counts are matching companies in each list as of its own refresh date.
Countries
- Oil exploration companies based in the United States794
- Oil exploration companies based in the United Kingdom168
- Oil exploration companies based in Canada160
- Oil exploration companies based in Nigeria121
- Oil exploration companies based in India77
- Oil exploration companies based in Australia75
- Oil exploration companies based in Indonesia55
- Oil exploration companies based in Brazil52
- Oil exploration companies based in Egypt46
- Oil exploration companies based in the United Arab Emirates39
- Oil exploration companies based in Norway37
- Oil exploration companies based in Malaysia30
Cities
- Oil exploration companies based in Houston, United States162
- Oil exploration companies based in Dallas, United States56
- Oil exploration companies based in Denver, United States31
- Oil exploration companies based in Midland, United States29
- Oil exploration companies based in Oklahoma City, United States27
- Oil exploration companies based in Fort Worth, United States25
Frequently asked
What is RevenueBase Smart Search?
RevenueBase Smart Search is how RevenueBase decides which companies belong on this list and how strongly each one fits. Its data engine and AI assess a company's LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website and other publicly available information, then relate it to the category the list is about. Each row is rated strong evidence when the company's own description names oil exploration companies, partial evidence when it names part of the category, and indirect evidence when the description shown names none of it and the match rests on the rest of the company's profile.
How many oil exploration companies are there worldwide?
RevenueBase identified 2,830 oil exploration companies worldwide as of September 2026, matched on each company's own description of what it does rather than its industry code.
What is the largest company on this list?
Petronas, headquartered in Pengerang, tops this list with the largest team on record.
Which country has the most oil exploration companies?
The United States leads with 794 companies, followed by the United Kingdom (168) and Canada (160). Every oil exploration companies list by country and city is linked on this page.
Which city has the most oil exploration companies?
Houston leads with 162 headquartered companies, followed by Calgary (110) and London (78).
How do I get contact information for these companies?
A free RevenueBase account lets you run this exact search and work the top results, verified emails and direct dials included. Upgrading unlocks all 56,870 verified decision-maker contacts tracked across these 2,830 companies.
How current is this list?
The list refreshes periodically as the company graph is re-checked. This page's figures were pulled on September 20, 2026.
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About this data
RevenueBase is a B2B data infrastructure company. Its company graph covers 60 million companies and 398.9 million professional contacts, with emails verified on a rolling cadence rather than scraped once and left to decay. These company lists are generated directly from that graph with RevenueBase Smart Search, the same natural-language company search every RevenueBase user has: describe a market in plain words, get the companies that match, and add verified emails and direct dials for the people at them. It is the same data that powers RevenueBase's B2B data products, and a free account includes 500 credits to start. How these lists are built and judged.