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I'm curious where Standard Oil would stand had it not been broken up.

$1tn according to Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil#Breakup

PetroChina was actually worth more than one billion USD a few years ago when a-shares became available at the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

You mean trillion I think.

In numbers, I mean 10^12. As a written word, you are right that for most HN readers, trillion is the probably the correct term.

A long-scale billion is a short-scale trillion. How I hate this confusion! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

Thanks, I never know which one to use if a use English with a mixed audience.

I get so annoyed when people don't make (or understand) the distinction between the value of a company, public or private, and the market cap of a publicly traded company. They are not the same, not by a long-shot, and the biggest and most "valuable" companies are usually private.

It does bother me how the US media seems to forget about this 'little' company that probably provides half the gas in their cars...