Last year’s Covid-induced oil price collapse forced shareholder distributions down the oil majors’ priority list, with stock buy-backs put on hold and, in BP and Shell’s case, dividends slashed. Resetting fnancial positions will be a critical challenge this year as the majors face simultaneous pressures to reduce debt piles built up last year and invest in the energy transition. But if the recent recovery in oil prices is sustained it would make it easier to defend dividends, and raise the possibility of other shareholder distributions eventually reappearing on the agenda.
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