Big Oil Is Once Again Spending Like Crazy
Things are turning around for the oil industry, at least if the levels of spending indicate anything—Chevron, Exxon and several partners just committed $37B to expand upon an oil project in Kazakhstan.
That’s one of the largest investments since crude prices collapsed two years ago, and it’s not the only investment the industry is making. BP recently moved ahead with a multibillion-dollar gas expansion, along with an offshore gas discovery in Egypt. The Italian firm Eni SpA is also pouring money into an Egypt field, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Oil companies are making the best of a bad situation. The fall in oil prices has led to a similar fall in drilling costs, engineering costs and even labor costs, since there is far less demand nowadays, making it the perfect time to invest in infrastructure. [WSJ]
