By Paul Sankey
Published on June 1, 2024 at 12:27 PM
“That must mean we’re up here at Gobbler’s Knob, waiting for the forecast from the world’s most famous weatherman, Punxsutawney Phil.” Phil Connors (Bill Murray), Groundhog Day (1993) We are back to writing about E&P M&A … again. Our conclusions are broadly unchanged: Big companies are being incentivized by the market to take over the small, but with an evolution on the margin that finds asset quality now of equal importance to valuation; we are …
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By Paul Sankey
Published on April 7, 2024 at 5:02 PM
We sent you a theme note on BP & BPX yesterday, which was quite sad, remembering the John Browne Sun King glory days. In fact “harsh but fair” was feedback from one US E&P CEO. But as I have said many times, “if you ever feel sorry for an oil CEO, short the stock.” What should BP do? Get into Namibia. Buy a Gulf of Mexico deepwater player, but first cut out of transition investment; …
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By Paul Sankey
Published on February 29, 2024 at 9:03 AM
Market backdrop: our argument that low US refining utilisation this month (Feb 2024) would tend to pressure crude prices, tighten product inventories, and raise product prices, is not working at all, leading us to demand concerns. Refiners have been weak accordingly, even if background GDP data and better than expected China numbers suggest a good year for refiners. It’s not all bad news: crude oil prices are acting well. Generally with seasonality, tough January weather …
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