OIL MAJORS ROAR BACK
Companies report bumper profits but stall on new spending spree
THE world’s leading oil companies published a bumper crop in profits last year as rising crude prices helped turn their fortunes around, but they remain cautious and are unlikely to rush out on a new spending spree just yet.
In a flourish of earnings reports over the past week, the picture painted by majors ranging from ExxonMobil and Chevron to BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Total has been a very rosy one.
French giant Total saw its bottom line jump by more than a third, Shell’s net profit tripled, ExxonMobil’s fourth-quarter earnings rose nearly five-fold, Norway’s Statoil swung back into the black and BP’s profit soared.
In fact, “2017 was one of the strongest years in BP’s recent history”, the British group’s chief executive officer (CEO) Bob Dudley said at the company’s annual earnings news conference.
Key to this success was the steady rise in crude prices in recent months, driven by a landmark deal between oil-producing countries both inside and outside the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel to reduce the worldwide glut in supply by throttling output.
Correspondingly, after falling from US$115 (RM453) per barrel in 2014 to under US$35 at the start of 2016, oil prices have been rising, from an average US$44 in 2016 to US$54 last year and nearly US$70 this month.
Flush with their new-found profits, the oil majors have raised dividends and announced share buy-back programmes.
But it’s still a far shot from the heady days of old.
Companies have learned to live with low oil prices, slashing costs and investment to become leaner and fitter, and said they had little intention of abandoning that regime any time soon.
Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said he now worked on the assumption that oil prices would remain “lower forever”.
“We’re sticking to the cost-cutting programmes, despite the rise in crude prices,” said Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne.
Such prudence is evident in the only modest uptick in investment in upstream exploration and production activities.
Globally, these investments rose by four per cent to US$389 billion last year and should increase by a modest two to six per cent again this year, according to estimates published by IFP Energies Nouvelles.
By comparison, the amount totalled US$683 billion in 2014.