Supermajors Still Struggling Despite Oil Price Recovery

The global COVID-19 pandemic led to an abysmal second quarter for the earnings of U.S. oil companies, but oil prices themselves staged a recovery during the quarter. The second quarter began with oil prices having fallen into the teens, and then West Texas Intermediate (WTI) went negative for the first time ever. But by the end of the quarter, the price of WTI had recovered back to $40/bbl. For the entire quarter, the daily closing price of WTI averaged $27.96/bbl. Today the price of oil is just over $42/bbl, which is about 30 percent lower than…