European suppliers to the oil industry, hit by their customers’ spending cutbacks over the past two years, have produced stronger than expected second-quarter earnings and are cautiously pointing to signs of recovery in demand.
These companies, which encompass oil drillers, engineering groups, oil services providers and seismic surveyors, have had to slash jobs, costs and investments to cope with the fallout from a 60 percent drop in the oil price since 2014.
The tide may be turning now the oil price has stabilized but any recovery for these companies will be uneven because those that find it tough to cut capacity and costs will lag others with more flexible business models.
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