Big Oil gets serious as cost cuts signal worst slump since 1986
They are cutting jobs, cancelling refinery projects, giving up exploration
London
MAJOR oil companies are awaking from their slumber and facing up to the magnitude of the crash in crude prices.
From Royal Dutch Shell plc cancelling a US$6.5 billion project in Qatar to Schlumberger Ltd firing about 9,000 people and Statoil ASA giving up exploration in Greenland, the oil industry this week concluded that the slump is no blip.
Top producers follow US shale developers such as Continental Resources Inc in unravelling a boom that produced more oil and natural gas than the world is ready to buy.
And there is certainly more unwinding to come. For most of this month, crude oil has traded below US$50 …
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