The majors enter the financial results season under pressure to reveal credi- ble strategies to cope with a poten- tially long period of lower oil prices. Their performances in the fourth quarter of last year will give some indi- cation of their resilience, with Atlantic basin benchmark North Sea Dated aver- aging $77/bl, the lowest quarterly level for almost five years. Prices have fallen below $50/bl in the current quarter. But full-year 2014 results will mask the scale of the challenge ahead — North Sea Dated averaged $99/bl last year, down from $109/bl in 2013.
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