“The oil price fell to $ 30 per barrel, which is not new to the oil industry and has been experienced before. We can take some internal measures to deal with low oil prices, but crude oil prices are not within the controllable range.” Total Zhao Weiliang, Chairman of Total China, said in a recent interview with Peng Mei News and other media, “Many people will ask what the oil price will be next year. My answer is that you can’t control it. Like the epidemic, it is still full of uncertainty.”
Total, headquartered in Paris, is one of the world ’s largest integrated oil and gas companies, and its predecessor can be traced back to CFP. Oil companies, including Total, are facing unprecedented and severe challenges: the blockade measures of various countries under the new pandemic pneumonia epidemic have wiped out oil demand, and the global oil supply and demand is seriously unbalanced. Although the international oil price has recently increased with the relaxation of control and returned to above $ 30 / barrel, the global oil market has not yet escaped the danger.
The breakeven point of oil companies is again facing stress tests.
Zhao Weiliang said that cost reduction is a consistent strategy of Total in the face of oil price fluctuations. In the past 10 years or so, the oil and gas sector will encounter a crisis every five years. For example, the oil price plummeted in 2014 and 2015, and the number one step forward is the world financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. It is forcing oil companies to reduce costs and expenses to cross the cycle of low oil prices.
“From 2014 to 2015, we have been strengthening cost control. In 2014, Total ’s oil price breakeven point was around US $ 100 per barrel, which has now dropped to 25 US dollars / barrel. If the international oil price stabilizes at 50 US dollars / barrel, oil companies will feel comfortable, but oil prices cannot be stable for a long time, and only their own costs are controlled. Even if the oil price rebounds, we must continue to maintain the habit of cost control. ”
Integrated upstream and downstream operations, substantial reductions in operating expenses, and the use of low oil price cycles to reorganize assets, a series of measures made Total a decline in net profit in a low oil price environment in 2015 The fewest international oil companies. Zhao Weiliang told the surging news that the most important experience left by the last round of oil price plunge was “act fast.”
For this reason, after the negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Russia on the March 6 Vienna meeting on the expansion of production cuts broke, Total ’s management on March 7, 8 It is judged that the incident will have a long-term impact on the oil market on the weekend of the day, and a response must be initiated immediately. On March 19, Pan Yanlei, Chairman and CEO of Total (