Oil and gas execs gathered at the annual IHS CERAWeek energy gathering in Houston to send a confident message: “We will survive!” Industry leaders, despite spending cuts, reported huge losses in 2015: BP lost $5.2B while Hess purged over $3B.
And the world’s largest oil exporter has no plans to help—on Tuesday Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said his kingdom has no plans to cut output in order to boost plummeting oil prices, which have fallen below $30 a barrel. On the contrary, he said they're prepared to see prices drop to $20 a barrel before considering slowing output. He says he hopes market forces destroy companies with high production costs along the way, the Wall Street Journal reports.
It looks like the Saudi plan is working—energy companies have cut more than 300,000 jobs worldwide since 2014, when oil prices started their long fall from $100 a barrel, according to Houston consulting firm Graves & Co. [WSJ]
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