The oil industry is in trouble, trouble I say.
Exxon-Mobil executives are almost certainly having their meals serenaded with much smaller violins this year as the second quarter profits were just (ONLY!!!) $3.95 billion — or a 66% drop from the 2008 second quarter. Sigh … no $40 billion+ in profits this year.
Shell also saw a 2/3rds drop in profits.
The oil company executives seem to agree: worldwide oil demand is low. Shell’s Peter Voser
Our second quarter results were affected by the weak global economy. This weakness is creating a difficult environment both in Upstream and Downstream. Energy demand is weak. There is excess capacity in the market, and industry costs remain high. Conditions are likely to remain challenging for some time, and we are not banking on a quick recovery.
Even so, oil prices are in the $60 range, not the under $20 as just a decade ago.