Clean Creatives has counted 1,321 fossil fuel contracts across the agency world in its 2026 F-list—a nearly 9% increase over last year and the highest figure since the group began its research in 2021.

The list, now in its sixth edition, names agencies that maintain working relationships with fossil fuel companies despite a growing cohort of PR and marketing firms pledging to refuse such work. All seven major advertising holding companies hold "significant contracts" with large fossil fuel companies, according to the analysis.

Omnicom-owned agencies top the holding-company ranking with 118 contracts. WPP-owned agencies rank second with 88. Publicis, Dentsu, Havas, Stagwell, and DJE Holdings also appear on the list, though their agencies hold far fewer contracts overall, Clean Creatives reports. Independent agencies account for more than three-quarters of the total.

Six years of accumulated data now allow the group to track broader patterns in petroleum marketing worldwide, including shifting ad narratives, contracts in the Global South, and agency sustainability reporting.

"The fossil fuel industry sees that we don't need it for our future. It sees that the end of the road is coming for its industry," Clean Creatives' Head of Research Nayantara Dutta told Morning Brew. "So we are seeing very advanced manipulation tactics in campaign messaging these days."

One tactic couples AI with the continued need for fossil fuels. Oil company campaigns position AI "as a reason for fossil fuels to continue to remain relevant" and "insert fossil fuels" into the broader conversation around the technology, Dutta said.

"The combination of all of these themes is really leading to this messaging we are seeing around AI as being intrinsic to nationalism, energy security, and future technologies," she said. "They're really justifying continued investment in fossil fuels as a technological innovation through AI, rather than the over-extraction that it actually is."

A 2025 Chevron ad illustrates the pattern. Footage of American landmarks and rocket launches plays behind a voiceover stating: "AI is here, the next big leap. And Chevron is working to power it."

The F-list has widened its geographic scope in recent years and now documents campaigns and contracts between oil companies and communications firms in the Global South. This year's list includes a Central Asian contract for the first time. "We've really tried to get as many as we could in Africa specifically," Dutta said.

In those markets, fossil fuel campaigns "tie oil and gas to cultural and religious celebrations," she said. One example: an AI-generated Ramadan ad from ADNOC Distribution, an oil distributor in Abu Dhabi.

AI-produced ads in the sector remain rare, according to Dutta. "Creative agencies, despite the proliferation of AI, still have a very important place in this," she said. "AI is more of a platform and a conversation they're using to leverage the discussion around fossil fuel proliferation and dominance, rather than something that we're actively seeing impact the creative output at the moment."

For agencies weighing their own fossil fuel stance, the data suggests pressure will keep building: contract numbers are climbing, and the industry's messaging playbook—now wrapped in AI and energy-security themes—will likely grow more sophisticated in the editions to come.