This may not be the best time to be bigger than big.
The $64 billion tie-up of Royal Dutch Shell Plc with BG Group Plc and the steady growth of Exxon Mobil Corp. are creating a new league of two: the ultramajors. Executives at smaller companies are even starting to joke that Chevron Corp., Total SA, BP Plc, ConocoPhillips and ENI SpA are merely the mid-cap sector of Big Oil.
But as oil and gas prices have tumbled, Exxon and Shell have been forced to retreat. With oil barely above $30 a barrel, they’re cutting spending, including some costly, high-risk mega-projects. Shell abandoned construction of the 80,000 barrel-a-day Carmon Creek oil sands project in Alberta, Canada, last year after having started to build it. Exxon is slashing investment by 25 percent this year compared with 2015.
Brazil Energy Insight 
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