Big Oil's Debt Hits A Record $184 Billion As Impairments Hit $101 Billion

Last week I covered a research report from the folks at Oppenheimer, who have calculated that during 2015 the top 30 publicly traded US-based exploration and production companies collectively booked $101 billion in asset impairments compared with only $23 billion of impairments during 2014 and $9.3 billion of impairments in 2013.

These numbers highlight how badly the oil industry is suffering from the recent oil price slump. But writedowns aren’t the only factor weighing on Big Oil.

According to research by the Wall Street Journal, the world’s four largest integrated oil companies now owe a record $184 billion in debt. This mountain of debt is a result of Big Oil’s inability to cut costs deep enough and...