A climate of change

摘要

Keep the investors close at all costs - this was the oil industry motto at the start of 2016. Capital investment cuts of 25% or more compared with 2015 and asset disposals were all being directed towards either debt service or dividend payments as the year began. However, at what point does this slow decapitalisation create companies that are just financial shells that, absent greater turmoil in Saudi Arabia and with January 2016 oil prices at a 12-year low of $28/b and fears of a further plunge as Iranian export volumes were set to increase, eventually collapse and leave the cherished investors with nothing?