Oil majors' strategies are variations on a theme

The majors' plans for 2019 look remarkably similar on the surface, but there are key differences

Share price performance since the start of 2016 would seem to suggest that the majors have been taking radically different approaches. BP and Shell have been tearaway successes (see Fig1.), ExxonMobil and Eni have lagged and Total and Chevron have been somewhere in between. But these differing trajectories are all the more surprising at a time when the general thrust of the firms' strategies is relatively similar. "The over-riding driver is the same-making portfolios more resilient to lower prices, boosting margins via high-grading, and moving down the cost curve," says Tom Ellacott, senior vice-president for corporate research at consultancy Wood Mackenzie. At the same time, the subtle diff