When Big Oil Mistook a Bubble for the Future
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Exxon, Shell and the Price of Strategic Freedom
The Financial Times recently published a substantial profile piece of ExxonMobil and its chief executive, Darren Woods, under the title The King of Big Oil. The title suggests a conventional story about operational success, scale and corporate recovery. Those elements are there to begin with, but the article then becomes
How Palliser Reshaped Capricorn: From Cash Discount and Boardroom Battle to a Takeover Premium
Genel Energy has announced a recommended cash offer for Capricorn Energy, valuing the company at approximately $360 million on a fully diluted basis. Shareholders have been offered $4.74 per share, comprising $3.75 in cash from Genel and a $0.99 special dividend from Capricorn. The total package is
How Eni Kept its Oil and Gas Strategy While Placing Transition Bets That Are Paying Off
I have written a lot recently about what oil companies got wrong: the retreat from exploration, the confusion of transition strategy with corporate identity, and the tendency of boards to mistake a fashionable market narrative for durable industrial reality. This article is about the other side of that argument. Eni
BP Needs a Board for the Strategy It Now Claims to Want
I have already argued that BP’s chair question is not simply a vacancy problem, but a process problem. After the removal of Albert Manifold, BP does not just need another permanent chair; it first needs to restore confidence in the machinery that will make that appointment. Hence my case