BP faces tricky times with Deepwater Horizon’s final bill unclear, the falling oil price and uncertainty over its key Russian market
Compare and contrast. Last week Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden opined that the “long-term equilibrium” for the oil price lay at about $90, which sounded semi-cheerful from the point of view of a producer. Van Beurden thought it was important not to “over-react” to current lower prices.
On Tuesday Bob Dudley at BP warned of a “raging gale” in the oil industry that could last for years. He wasn’t talking long-term equilibriums, let alone suggesting where they might lie. Instead, he said the current situation “feels like 1986”, when the oil price crashed by three-quarters, rather than the mere halving that has been witnessed since last summer.
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