At the start of the year, even before oil and gas companies were clobbered by the global coronavirus or Covid-19 downturn and the short-lived OPEC+ crude price war, energy market sentiment wasn’t exactly robust. However, what has unfolded in the last eight weeks has ensured confidence in the sector is rock bottom.
The next few trading sessions are likely to bring the sector’s health into sharp focus as a string of Big Oil earning declarations are on the horizon. Given the current economic climate, investors are more or less braced for awful figures. But the big question for Big Oil is will dividend cuts follow? Such payouts totaled over $40 billion in 2019, according to Refinitiv Datastream.
