10 Cheap Oil Stocks Under $10 Oil stocks got clobbered in 2020 as demand crashed and plants shuttered. The entire energy industry is still feeling the reverberations of the crisis and in flux amid the extreme volatility in oil prices. The companies behind the American shale boom are now struggling to generate substantial returns for their shareholders. A decade ago, oil and gas companies represented over 10% of the S&P 500 by market capitalization. Now this number has fallen to just 4% of the index. In 2019, the collective revenue generation of these companies in the Forbes Global 2000 list of largest companies was more than any other sector, as reported by GlobalData. Leading the list was the state-owned company, Saudi Aramco, which called itself the most profitable oil company in the world, generating a revenue of $111 billion during the 2019 fiscal year. Other industry leaders like Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-A) also posted robust returns. However, some oil companies like Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) struggled in 2019, with profits dropping by 15% compared to the previous year as the shift towards renewable and clean energy policies put a damper on its performance.