Douglas-Westwood: NOCs ready for market moves

Since the downturn began, cutting Capex across all business segments has been one of the primary methods of improving profitability and free cash flow for E&P companies – with spend in the first nine months of 2016 ~45% lower than that of 2014. Over the same period, cash flow from operating activities has been squeezed, as falling oil prices have reduced revenues and price hedges have expired.

Despite the downturn, international oil company (IOC) dividend pay-outs have remained fairly steady, due to an emphasis on maintaining investor confidence in future performance – thus sustaining access to liquidity and credit. However, IOCs have had to pay a heavy price, cutting Capex, selling assets and increasing debt, with free cash flows generally turning negative, despite relatively strong downstream performance. While IOC free cash flows have generally made movements back to neutrality in 3Q16, only Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron have returned to the black. Given that dividend payments are unlikely to be cut by the group, a significant uptick in oil price after OPEC’s meeting will be required to spur new large scale investment.

Non-OPEC national oil companies (NOCs), on the other hand, have generally been quick to cut dividend payments during the downturn, alongside Capex reductions, as greater emphasis is placed on profitability and free cash flow. The group had the highest free cash flow in 3Q16 of the 15 companies studied by DW (5 of which non-OPEC NOC), amounting to US$10 billion. As a result, this group is particularly well placed in the current market, as well as being able to quickly react to any improvements in project economics in the wake of the OPEC meeting.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/refining/14112016/douglas-westwood-nocs-ready-for-market-moves/