BRIEFING The Messy Business of 'Breaking Even'

摘要

Breaking even. It doesn't seem particularly ambitious to position a business so that expenditures are balanced with the amount of cash coming in, but that's where we are with the Western majors these days. Having already spent billions of dollars outside their cash flows even before oil prices collapsed, the majors face quite a challenge to achieve equilibrium at sub-$50 oil. But investors hope that once they get there, these integrated giants will start to thrive in a lower oil-price environment, rather than just survive (EIF Aug.3' 16).