Thread by @TimBuckleyIEEFA

The carnage of the Oil & Gas Majors.
Negative oil prices. LNG <US$2/mmBtu.
Pivot or Die.
The boards have doubled down on expensive M&A when prices were double today, &/or catching the falling knife buying back their stock at double current prices. Caught asleep at the wheel.

The humbling of @ExxonMobil.
In a decade & the S&P500 rose 200% Exxon returned -10.8% to investors. The market evaluation of former CEO Rex Tillerson is clear, he failed. 2020 saw Exxon destroy 38% of shareholder wealth, Darren Woods is doing no better.
bloomberg.com/features/2020-…

The price of oil has collapsed well below the breakeven price of oil, as defined by the oil majors as oil price needed to cover capital spending and dividends.

In this new world capital preservation is the first order of the day, capex cuts will continue & oil dividends unsustainable. @Shell has come to this realisation, slashed its payout by two-thirds. @BP_plc? Not yet. ft.com/content/3af2f9…
By @AttractaMooney & @AnjliRaval @FT

So @Shell CEO Ben van Beurden has warned oil demand might already have peaked. He said now, more than ever, the firm needs to reposition for the future.
Now is the time, seriously. Pivot or Die. Protect your shareholders, for a change. Like @Orsted did. And help save the planet.

And an excellent @chrisnelder podcast with @liamdenning explaining the unprecedented events. The financial markets clearly don’t trust these firms as good capital stewards, any bailout will likely fail. The energy disruption is alive & accelerating.

https://twitter.com/TransitionShow/status/1255533463916158976?s=20

Meanwhile even the group puts $53bn of LNG expansions on hold, a majority of shareholders voted for @WoodsideEnergy to set science-based greenhouse gas targets. Well done @brynnobrien & @justdanfornow.
theguardian.com/environment/20… by @adamlmorton

This chart says it all. Rex Tillerson managed to 'sustainably' shrink @ExxonMobil's Return on Investment by three-quarters. That takes some doing. So for all his climate science denial, he couldn't even make money externalising all the costs. By Kevin Crowley & Bryan Gruley. ✅

And now the prince of the fraccing revolution turns out to be entirely a charlatan. Chesapeake Energy preparing bankruptcy. From US$37bn market capitalisation to.... nothing. There is the fossil fuel promise! reuters.com/article/us-che… by @mike_d_spector @davidj_french @reuters

Chesapeake Energy ⏬99% in five years. Fossil fuels are wealth destroyers. Stranded assets are a clear and present wealth hazard.

And @WoodMackenzie gives a good summary: "Put simply, oil and gas has become not only high-risk, and high-carbon, but now low-return, too."
Woodmac has nicely pivoted their business into renewables, I wonder if their clients will follow? woodmac.com/news/editorial…