More big oil companies take hits in 4th-quarter results
Low oil and natural gas prices are saving families hundreds of dollars a year, but there are few cheers among energy executives.
Longer term, there are questions about the value of oil still under the ground and the sea floor, as climate concerns prompt energy users of all sizes to seek alternatives to fossil fuels.
BP and Exxon Mobil continue to pledge their commitment to their dividends, helped by the strong returns that refineries tend to show when oil and gas, vital raw inputs, are low.
Senior oil executives noted that unseasonably warm weather had lowered demand for natural gas and that refining and chemical profit margins were weakening in some areas of the world.
[...] despite the challenges, oil executives expressed confidence Tuesday that their businesses would survive and prosper in the future, and that oil and gas prices would eventually rebound to lofty levels.
BP has sought to streamline operations by selling some businesses — a strategy in some ways forced by its need to raise money to help pay damages from its oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
Since 2010, the company has raised about $60 billion through sales of assets including stakes in three large Gulf of Mexico oil fields in 2012 and a Texas refinery in 2013.
Other companies, needing to scale back and increase efficiency in response to plunging oil prices, are finding it hard to find buyers for businesses or operations they might want to sell.