Majors’ cost-cutting starts to bear fruit

摘要

The majors’ first-quarter profits were squeezed by a 50pc year-on-year fall in crude prices. But cost cuts, strong refining results, divestment gains, foreign currency effects and rising liquids output limited the impact. “The first-quarter environment was marked by much lower oil prices, but there were some mitigating effects,” Total chief financial officer Patrick de La Chevardiere says. Operating costs fell in the quarter. Shell’s operating expenditure (opex) — excluding one-off items — was about $1.1bn, or 10pc, lower than a year earlier.