Don

Bloated with profits and rolling in cash, but it isn’t nearly enough. Oil companies confound our senses with big numbers – BP earned $17 billion (


The alternative to upsetting the staff would be to cut the payout and dismay the shareholders. For an oil company, yield is sacred, a Rubicon that must never be crossed.

It’s just not good enough, says Tony Hayward about BP’s numbers. The chief is in cheese-paring mode, demanding a 15-20 per cent reduction in overheads. Over at Shell, the mood is equally grim, with the entire IT staff to be removed from the payroll and ructions in Nigeria as the joint venture that houses Shell’s embattled Niger Delta operation is put through the wringer.

Times of London